Reflections of the Kaleidoscope
by Ol'Velsper
Summary: The Second Magic, sometimes known as Kaleidoscope, allows one to gaze into parallel worlds. Come and see the what-ifs, have beens, could have beens, and what will be of this mixed up World. Seriously, what's up with you, Gaia?
1. Chapter 1

Presenting...

...

World 687 - Noble Phantasm...go?

...

Our hero, Archer, found himself glaring hatefully up the steps to the Ryudou Temple at his opponent. The woods burned around the two, but could not match the fierce, hungry fire blazing deep within the eyes of the Princess of the True Ancestors.

Her stark grey skin looked mottled, veins popping out out of her cheeks as blood dripped down from her fanged maw.

"So you turned on her as well, didn't you?" Archer asked the creature, which was lost deep within the madness of the Berserker class. The being that had been formerly known as Arcueid Brunstud merely flexed her hands, claws at the ready to mow him to the ground.

However, there was one chance he had glimpsed might save his life. It was stupid as hell, but it was the only thing he had to work with.

He was sure it'd at least briefly distract the unholy sentience which was now rising high over the lake behind the temple, at least.

Zelretch was drawn with a flourish, causing the True Demon that Arcueid had become to hiss angrily at Archer. However, for a moment, a look of recognition and deep sadness entered those eyes.

"Accessing records..."

Which was all that Archer needed for an opening as he knew exactly what he needed without a need to search.

"Downloading!"

The crystal sword's form wavered before shrinking into a red and white spherical object.

"Pokeball...go!" Forged as the item was from the magic circuits of Archer, the creature within was converted into his Familiar as it erupted from the depths of the technological wonder.

The Grand Holy Grail, detecting that a magus which had been acknowledged by the system had summoned within its territory, swiftly hunted through the system for an appropriate class.

"Metapod! Use Harden!" Archer commanded the green and brown hued creature, even as the remaining Command Spell he had long ago been left with shone with new power as it acknowledged the addition of Servant Defender to the War. Defender turned large, wobbly eyes to briefly to acknowledge Archer. It let out a cry as its carapace began to shimmer with a golden, shiny hue as its body began to increase its defensive abilities.

Berserker howled angrily as she used her abilities, offended the creature had gained a slightly higher defense stat than her. Invoking one of her abilities, she raised her abilities so she'd match and exceed Defender by thirty percent.

"Metapod..." Archer ominously began, and snapped his finger out to point at Berserker, "Use Harden again!" He quickly reached into his mantle and drew a cellphone out. Dialing Rin's number, he waited while Defender and Berserker began to repeat their previous actions.

"Rin. Summon me to your side now." Archer put the phone on speaker and set it on the step immediately above Defender while Berserker began to enhance herself again. Moments later he vanished from the site of battle, but Archer's voice continued to be heard from the cell phone.

Up above, explosions began to go off.

"Metapod, use Harden!" Archer sounded distracted, and the sounds of metal clashing could be heard, but Defender proudly did its part to save the world.

In its own special way.

...

_Wise up!_

Pokeball

[Battle Conductor of the Gods]

Owner: n/a

Type: Support

Rank: n/a

More of a foci than a Noble Phantasm. The Jewel Sword of Zelretch is wrapped in the long history of the devices. Due to their infamy in the current world and their widespread use and history in World #151, the Grand Holy Grail accepts the image of the mechanical device as a valid focus for summoning.

Just like the Stone Pillar of Herakles in the Fifth Holy Grail War, all it takes is a symbol to get your desired choice.

However, it symbolizes the strange and wonderous creatures, and due to the nature of the Second Magic inside Zelretch, the appropriate being can be summoned quite easily. Be warned though not to summon above your level of experience though. The creatures will rebel and lash out against you.

Rumors say this simple foci can bind even the divine spirits of their race. Woe be to any magi who attempts such a feat.

However, due to the seven original classes being taken, a new one had to be accessed from the depths of the Operating System. Therefore leading to the birth of the Defender class, much like Avenger was forged in the Third Holy Grail War.

This was a good match, though. For these alien existences from another world define themselves through their selfless and silent deeds to protect and watch over the human race that they so love.

Still, though...

Metapod?

* * *

><p>World 2 - The Miracle Never Happen<p>

...

Einzbern Castle began to collapse all around Archer and True Assassin. On some level it deeply saddened Archer to see all the fine art hanging on the walls and antique furniture being consumed. Yet another part of him only wished for Ilyasviel Einzbern to burn for killing the naive daughter of Kiritsugu Emiya.

This time around the Servant had manifested as a slender, dark man with a bandaged right arm. Fortunately EMIYA's suicidal fighting style and his Mind's Eye were allowing Archer to survive as True Assassin occasionally slipped in its precision attacks to try and go for one of Archer's exposed vitals.

However, this was taking too long. While the white haired man was dancing away the night with Kanshou and Bakuya, Shirou and Arturia were in the main foyer desperately trying to take down Herakles and Ilyasviel Einzbern.

It galled the man.

Fortunately the Mind's Eye trait kicked in for him with an obvious solution. Archer flung the brighter of the two swords directly at True Assassin. The shadow leapt backwards to avoid the strike, and in that moment he acted.

'Access records...'

True Assassin began to scale the wall he had leapt to in an amazing feat of acrobatics. The white blade sunk into a towering inferno consuming one of the walls with a clang. While this happened, Archer quickly manuevered to the left of the wide hall towards a set of spiraling stairs in the center of the room heading down with golden railings to grip onto.

True Assassin followed as he somehow rolled and leapt along the roof of the ceiling. Now both fighters had the blazing fires to the left of them and a set of stairs leading down directly in front of Archer. However, True Assassin would allow Archer to rush himself However, he wasn't counting on his opponent flinging the second of the blades at him.

'Searching...'

The assassin flung a series of Darks at Archer, and the Heroic Spirit had to dive out of the way of the knives. He winced as one of them tagged him in the back of the thigh, severely immobilizing him as he completed his forwards dive.

The greatest injustice was that True Assassin didn't even suffer for the attack as he managed to contort his torso in oddly alluring ways as the Bakuya spun past him like a high speed discus. Gods, Archer hated fighting hive minds.

Especially when the men used techniques the female assassins should have been using, goddamit!

'Found...!'

True Assassin, smelling blood, dove for him. However, at the last moment, Kanshou lifted out into the fire to the side of the assassin and spun directly into his side in mid-air- seeking desperately to rejoin its brethen at Archer's mental command.

"Gah!" The glowing white discus continued to tear into his side for a few more moments before both True Assassin and the blade were knocked out of mid-air. Archer held a hand up, and Bakuya returned to his hand.

'World 1 - The Shield of the Relentless.'

The dark sword shattered, reveaing the core of Zelretch shining within. It's appearance caused Kanshou to shimmer out of existence, however. With the removal of the blade pinning True Assassin down, the Hassan-i-Sabbath invoked its Self Modification ability to prevent its death as vital organs were shifted along with mass.

"**Zabaniya - Delusional Heartbeat!**" The slimmer dark female spoke up in an angry voice as the bandages around her right arm snapped, revealing a hideously warped and deformed arm. One that still smelled like blood from its usage on …

'Downloading.'

Archer felt the effect of the curse begin to descend on him. Prana gathered around the woman's deformed arm as it formed into a perfect replica of his own heart. The curse synchronized it, and his own heart began to beat in synch with the clump of ether shaped into a replica of his heart. With that, the curse was completed as it tricked the World into believing they were one and the same.

The Heroic Spirit rapidly overlaid the image of the round silver shield over the sword and it appeared in a flash of light. He only had a blink of an eye to survive as prana instantly surged into the Noble Phantasm.

True Assassin began to crush...

The round shield flared brightly.

...nothing at all.

The silver shield was held out between Archer's chest and the killing arm - its bright light siphoning the curse and grief of the Zabaniya technique into it.

"How did you dispel my curse?" True Assassin demanded, shaking off her shock and fired another series of Darks at his vitals.

_Click._

_Griiiiiind._

'Then again, they were made for slimmer arms than mine. Slimmer and simultaneously mightier arms.' Archer thought, using Alteration to have it fit correctly as he casually glanced up at the eight Darks that were frozen less than a foot away from him.

Archer glanced over at the grey and absolutely still surroundings of the burning castle.

"Let's do this." The power of the curse itself continued to feed the time stop as Archer grabbed a broken piece of wood and glanced at its sharpened point and then at True Assassin's chest thoughtfully. Spinning the stake, Archer jabbed it in True Assassin's heart.

She let out a shriek as time immediately resumed as the Grief and Curses of the Zabaniya technique shattered with the death of True Assassin.

Archer glanced away from the dispelling figure of True Asssasin and towards the silver shield. He would need even more power if he was going to aid Shirou and Arturia. It was time to get a Broken Phantasm.

* * *

><p>"Fufu. You should be glad, oniichan! I freed you from that greedy demon. You can be mine now!" The dark skinned and white haired Master rode proudly upon the shoulder of her Berserker, Herakles. "Do you honestly thing you can defeat my Wishcraft and the greatest hero together?" She sneered.<p>

"C-cowards." Saber huffed and panted, looking deathly pale as blood oozed out of her from multiple successful strikes which had pierced past the aura granted by her Prana Burst and into her armored dress in various points. In her hands, Caliburn and Excalibur shone like miniature stars as she stood protectively in front of Shirou.

Shirou was clutching at his left hand. Lines of kaleidoscopic light blazed along the surface of his skin as he trembled and shook in pain. If the blonde in front of him was looking like she had one foot in the grave, the redhead looked like he was lying in it with his eyes half open.

All around them, thousands of bronze tipped arrows stabbed into the walls, floor, and ceiling as Herakles and Ilyasviel loomed above the two invaders.

"Ilyasviel...why did you have to do this? There could have been another option..." Shirou trembled, hacking up blood.

"Ilya! Call me Ilya!" The dark skinned girl shouted down at the redhead. "I am the original! I am the true self!" Her bright eyes briefly turned dull as an older, more mature voice came out of the girl. "Makiri believes me, yes... we will go on together and discover the Root once you two are gone."

Both Saber and Shirou had hateful glares at they saw the slithering of something beneath the girl's skin.

"Herakles! You have to stop this madness!" Saber pled. "You know what will happen to the world if they succeed!"

"...I will protect Ilya until the day I die." Herakles stonily stated. In his hands a massive bow sized to his hands was swiftly drawn.

"Herakles! It's time to stop fooling around!" The young girl's eyes shone with fire again as she sharply shook her head. "Kill Saber before Archer rejoins them! Use it and take her down!"

The guardian of Ilyasviel winced. A look of true sorrow briefly flitted across his features as he gazed down at Saber in the eye. The blonde stonily gazed back at him.

"Shirou...use the last Command Spell." Saber called back to the redhead behind her.

"Saber! You can't...!" Shirou sounded horrified.

"Command me to victory." The blonde gripped onto the hilts of both of her swords tightly. "With the last trace of Ilya in our world."

"**Nine Lives-**" Herakles roared out as prana surged outwards from his body. A monstrous pressure exploded.

"**Defeat Berserker!**" The last bit of Ilya's Wishcraft vanished as the final Command Spell was consumed.

Both Excalibur and Caliburn overloaded with prana as they became existences even further above what they were as Noble Phantasms. They became Broken Phantasms. Saber let out a roar as she rushed in, glacial green eyes focused on the path ahead of her.

"**The Shooting Hundred Heads!**" Herakles completed his attack – unleashing an instaneous sea of arrows. Each contained the power to end Saber a thousand times over.

As Shirou's eyes began to clench closed, the world around him shifted for just one moment into a dark grey before he found himself more than thirty miles away.

As the Einzbern Forest and a massive chunk of the town bordering it just...vanished in a dome of light.

The surging kaleidoscopic lights burning through Shirou's body died down as he collapsed, completely paralyzed as his body began to shut down. The remaining energy flowing through out of him to Arturia promptly severed as it was redirected to Avalon.

The artifact swiftly began to pull him back from death's door as he stared up at the ruins.

"Shirou Urobuchi is the winner of the Fifth Holy Grail War." Archer quietly called to Shirou from the side.

"...yeah." The redhead dumbly gazed over at Archer.

"...now, let's do this the right way, shall we?" Archer stepped into Shirou's line of vision. Instead of clad in his dark and red outfit, the much slimmer looking white haired man was wearing a white lab coat and red shirt tucked into a set of black pants. Over his chest a silver breastplate rested and two silver pauldrons were resting on his shoulders.

Archer offered Shirou his left hand, and the left pauldron flowed down his shoulder and arm like quicksilver. In the distance, the dome of energy began to radiate further outwards and towards their position.

"We...we can do it?" The light of hope lit up in the redhead's empty sherry eyes.

"So long as there's Grief, the Shield of the Relentless will fight it." Archer allowed the right pauldron to melt down his right arm as Shirou clenched onto his left hand. Simultaneously Shirou's left arm and Archer's right arm gained identical looking circular silver shields.

"...just wait for me! I'll come for you all!" Shirou swore as Archer pulled him to his feet. Avalon went inert as the original owner's last wish was granted.

"Then let's go." Archer tightened his grip on Shirou's hand.

"...to our next battlefield!" Shirou's eyes blazed as the gears within both silver shields clicked.

_Click. _

_Griiiiiind._

Both vanished without a trace as the eruption of energy swept past them.

* * *

><p><em>Wise up!<em>

Shield of the Relentless

[The Eternal Conflict of Hope and Grief]

Owner: Homura Akemi

Type: Support

Rank: n/a

The Shield of the Relentless is a shield used by Homura Akemi, and the symbol of the contract she made with higher level beings in exchange for the life of her true friend. It's initial design was a round, silver shield with four curved edges feeding directly into a central spiral. The top and bottom curved edges also had red crystals embedded within them.

A Noble Phantasm with control over time itself, its exact control mechanisms and power source has been lost to the ages. However, due to the personal history of this unsung Heroine, which exists within the collective subconsciousness, resounds so strongly with the themes of Grief and Hope that its abilities were tied to those aspects.

Curses and witchcraft directed towards the shield are drawn to the gems in the center of the shield, negating them and granting access to the aria locked deep within the shield. This allows the user to establish a temporal boundary field around themselves and anyone they touch. This sheared off section of time continues to exist for the user until such a time that the shield finishes processing the energy or the source fades away.

However, its true power can only be awakened in situations where the wielder can still look forwards to the future with Hope in spite of sinking into absolute Grief. Tapping into the user's negative feelings and unvoiced regrets, the shield then shifts to its final mode.

The power to travel through time. This is an extremely taxing effort that would kill even the strongest of Magi if they were to attempt and power the magic alone, though. The World will not easily allow one to attempt to tempt Paradox.

However, miracles can come true if you only have the will and believe in others. There will be a turnabout in the future if you strive for it long enough.

"Don't forget. Always, somewhere, someone is fighting for you. As long as you remember her...

You are not alone."

- U̕͜n̵͟͞͡k̶̨n̨͜͠o҉̶͢͝w̶͟ń̵͡


	2. Chapter 2

Presenting...

...

World 1997, Variant 13 - Fallout

...

_War..._

_War never changes..._

_At the dawn of the nineteenth century, three great families of Magi joined together to forge an artifact of great and terrible power. Having moved to a land far to the east, they worked tirelessly while their fellow Magi bled and died in a stalemate against the Church._

_This artifact would allow them to pierce the veil over reality and attain infinite wisdom for themselves. Before they could attain the prize, they would have to sacrifice blood, though. One of the rapidly vanishing True Magics that still existed in this world – Heaven's Feel, would be required to serve as the core of this device._

_However, there was a problem..._

* * *

><p>"Justica! Please reconsider!" A vigor young man with wind swept blue hair and a strong and powerful jaw line begged once again. He was dressed in an open chested dark robe that fit his frame well. A heavy flush was on his healthy checks as his eyes danced with the light of fear in their blue depths.<p>

Lizleihi Justica von Einzbern merely looked at the man with dismissive red eyes as she set a white cap with golden trimming on top of her long silver hair. She shifted as she finished adjusted the red mantle over her white and gold ceremonial robes.

"You always knew what this was about, Zouken." The homunculus known as the Saint of Winter was proving her title was apt as she coldly and logically dressed the man down. "Please do not confuse your hormones for genuine care."

"You said you loved me!" Zouken furiously swept his arm to the side. His lips pulled back into a snarl.

"Those parts that pleasured me was part of you." Justica intoned. The harsh words were obviously coming out forced from the woman. She rose off Zouken's bed. "I do thank you for allowing me one last chance to be a woman, but my duty to my family comes first."

The silver haired woman was heading for the door in the western style room, but was quickly held back by Zouken's arm.

"Justica! It can't end like this!" Zouken's face lost all its rage as he glanced between her and the door. "You know it can't!"

"...Zouken." The faintest trace of sadness crossed her eyes. "I was sent to you by my family to gain your aid to build the Holy Grail."

"...yes, and it was a shallow plan." Zouken agreed. Seeing that she hadn't tried to bolt for the door, he released her arm. "I still don't give a damn about that ritual. The original concept is too stupid for me to believe in. There has to be easier ways to gather the energy."

"Yet here you are." A bit of life began to return to what had been formerly hollow red eyes. "I was born for this, Zouken. If you love me, you have to let me go to do what I was intended to do."

Zouken's eyes began to water. He bowed his head. However, that wasn't enough to hide the small splatter of tears that were dripping to the ground.

"Please come and see me before I join the grail." Justica lips faintly rose as she turned and gave her former lover one last hug before she turned and left the room. Making sure to gently close the door behind, the tiny smile on her face faded along with all other traces of emotion.

Face as smooth as a mask, the empty eyed homoculus turned down a hall to go see the ravenous heir of Tohsaka. With a flare of the hundreds of circuits within her body, she used her alchemy to clean herself of any residue.

From within his room, Zouken looked up. Having felt the familiar feeling of Justica's od spark up, the miserable man wiped his tears away with the back of his hand. Now wasn't the time to be miserable!Justica could be in trouble!

"Justica?" The magus quickly opened the door to the room Tohsaka had lent him. He quickly glanced around, extending his senses as his magic circuit drank deeply of the mana in the air, and spotted Justica heading down the hall.

Before he could call out to her, she had vanished down the western hall.

'Isn't that the part of the mansion Tohsaka resides in?' The opulant surroundings fairly disgusted the rather straight forward Zouken. Curiousity began to overwhelm his grief as the magus stepped away from his room and began to leisurely follow.

However, very shortly, the man realized that he had gotten himself turned around in the maze like halls.

"Goddamned bloodsucker." Zouken spat, looking around. He couldn't tell one portrait or priceless piece of furniture apart from the other. Finally without any better ideas in mind, he lightly placed his hand on the left hand wall and began to walk forwards.

"I know he still has a problem with direct sunlight, but can't the fool at least provide some windows for the rest of us?" The blue haired man groused as he eventually found himself facing an empty sitting room with windows high in the room to only provide dim light.

"Ah, Zouken, my boy!" Zouken let out a yelp of surprise as he rapidly spun to face the Wizard Marshal himself.

"Zelretch! Oh thank goodness! Get me the bleeding hell out of here!" Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg let out a booming laugh. Dressed in his typical dark coat with white trimming, Zelretch had a healthy glow to his cheeks.

"What's wrong, my boy? Did young Justica scramble your sense of direction because of a less than amicable roll in the hay?" Zouken yelped, curling his lips as he angrily snapped.

"That's none of your business, old timer! Everything between me and her is private!" Zelretch chuckled, scratching at his spiky hair.

"Perhaps, perhaps. Would you like to listen to my various and multiple conquests of the maid staff here, then?" Zouken snorted, crossing his arms in front of him.

"With the way Tohsaka 'conditioned' them, I think even the more naïve of babes could add multiple conquests here." Zelretch wagged a finger.

"Now now. Don't make it seem so unseemingly, now. Tohsaka is just attempting to get an heir. With his condition in place, it's much harder than it should normally be for him to conceive with just one." Zouken sighed and rubbed his head. He slumped in place.

"I...guess you're right. Better that than becoming another menace to the world, especially with the beginnings of the Second Magic that he wields." Zelretch walked over and patted Zouken on the shoulder.

"There, there. I know that you're stressed over what will happen tomorrow. I'm going to miss Justica as well. This **is** for a good cause, though. Unlike all the other experiments to attain the Root, this uses a renewable source." Zouken glumly nodded as Zelretch continued. "Justica is doing a good thing here, and eventually the world might even benefit."

"Do you think...she'll finally be happy?" Zouken hopefully asked.

"With how the Einzbern designed her? Yes. She'll be content for real." Zelretch ruffled Zouken's hair. "So, let's see about flirting with some of the maids in the mansion, shall we? Why, maybe we can lure a woman or two away from old Tohsaka and set up a new lineage over in the east as well, Makiri!"

Zouken awkwardly laughed as Zelretch withdrew the shining crystal blade that shared his name. With a swing of the sword, both vanished in a burst of light.

* * *

><p>Nagato Tohsaka leaned back his bed. Sightlessly staring upwards at the ceiling, the blond haired man felt his partly elongated incisors poke the flesh around his lips. Tomorrow would finally be the day that the Holy Grail would be completed.<p>

He was of two minds of this.

His initial contribution had been in providing the land itself, but he had eventually been won over to fully backing the project when the Saint of Winter, Justica Einzbern, had been sent by the Einzberns.

It was rather moving to see them literally hand down their most priceless treasure.

From that point onwards, he had found himself working together with the former heir of the Einzbern lineage on designing the Class System while she word with the other two Magi on the project on the Command Spells and the Grand Grail itself.

It had been a long process, but they had finally arrived. Nagato was pleased that all the work with Master had finally found a good use, but he was sad to see Lizeihi finally go and fulfill her last role in all of this.

She had been a very good friend. Maybe a little too good for the sake of his own good.

'Ugh, stop thinking about her like that.' Nagato beat his head up against the back of his pillow as he kept glancing upwards. Yet his fangs began to ache at the thought of her and his mouth watered.

"God, I can't hold out forever..." The Tohsaka heir muttered. The hunger gnawed at his gut. "Please let me have an heir so I can be done."

Nagato sharply looked up at the knock at his door.

"Come in." His voice undid the wards on his doorknob. Justica's resplendid form appeared at the entrance to his dim bedchambers. "Liz..."

A ever so tiny smile crossed the woman's lips. "Nagato. May I come in?"

"Of course. You're always welcome." Nagato forced himself under control as he sat up. "What can I do for you?"

"I came to deliver the results of Seras' final examination." The Dead Apostle tensed. The homoculus's red eyes began to shine ever so slightly as she gave him a silent nod.

"Really...? You did it, Liz?" Nagato licked his lips as he leaned forwards.

"Congratulations." There was a trace of satisfaction in the woman's voice. "The Einzbern's alchemy is absolute."

"Hah..." The heir of Tohsaka breathed out. His body shook in joy as his blood began to pound in his ears. "Thank you...! Thank you so much!"

He finally had an child of his own...!

"You're welcome...Nagato?" Justica quirked her head. Concern flickered across her face as Nagato slumped over. "Nagato!" She moved closer to him.

'**Killkillkillkillkillkillkill!**' A booming voice stroked the man's hunger as his vision began to fracture.

"G-get away, Liz!" Nagato weakly cried out as he fell face first off his bed.

"Nagato!" Justicia rushed to his side and knelt down to try and aid him.

"_Square._" Nagato snarled as his eyes, now blood red, stared up directly into the homunculus own.

Justica squeaked, the air within her lungs being crushed out of her, as an overwhelming amount of power flowed out from her friend's eyes to utterly shatter the defenses the Einzbern had built into her.

"Ahaha. Well, wasn't it fortunate for me that vampirism ran stronger in this generation?" Nagato's blonde hair began to gain faint traces of darkness from the roots. Yet his eyes, which had been so warm and happy mere moments ago, were now utterly cold and vicious.

"Who...?" Justica moaned as she collapsed onto the ground next to the man.

"Michael Roa Valdamjong at your service, 'Liz'." The newly named man smiled, revealing gleaming fangs. "Now then, young Nagato was absolutely starving. Please don't mind me."

'Not now!' From within the still face of Justica, the woman finally displayed the first trace of genuine emotion in her life as the man's fangs sank into her neck. 'Zouken! Zelretch! Help me!'

Jusica's pleas were absorbed into the darkness as fire raced through her, beginning to corrupt her very soul and its True Magic.

* * *

><p>The following day was strange for both Zelretch and Zouken. They both knew that Nagato liked to stay indoors since a few years ago, when the traces of his vampiric heritage in his lineage had flared back to life with him, but the absolute shunning they were receiving was odd.<p>

Even further still, Justica had refused to meet with either Zelretch or Zouken, speaking to them from the other side of her door at times. It was worrying, especially for Zouken, considering how weak her voice had sounded.

"I apologize, but Lady Justica still doesn't feel well." One of the maids, a strawberry blonde by the name of Seras bowed curtly to both men as soon as she returned to the sitting room they were in, having returned from trying to check into the other woman's affairs for the two Magi.

Zelretch's eyes narrowed as he briefly glanced at the impressively figured woman as she left the room.

"Stop eying her like a midnight snack, you fiend." Zouken quietly snapped. It was enough for Zelretch to glance over at the blue haired man thoughtfully.

"What?" He distractedly mumbled. "I already had one, thank you."

Zouken rubbed his hand against his face. "So, what's the agenda for today, then? With Justica sounding so tired we might have to push back the completion of the Grail." His attempts at hiding his eagerness at pushing back the deadline weren't missed by Zelretch.

"Isn't Seras supposed to be Nagato's lover?" Zelretch redirected his thoughts back to where they originally were going.

"...what? You really **are **trying to take some of these women for yourself, aren't you?" Zouken frowned. Zelretch held a hand up to the other man with a serious expression on his face.

"No, no. This isn't a joke." The aura around the older man caused Zouken to hold his tongue. "I have inside me the blood of "No, no. This isn't a joke." The aura around the older man caused Zouken to hold his tongue. "I have inside me the blood of the ultimate being of the moon, the vampire king Crimson Moon Brunestud, as well. I taught everything I know about controlling vampiric instincts to Nagato."

"Well...yes. Yes you did. Nagato has been managing wonderfully these last few years too..." Zouken slowly replied.

'Except for when his original wife was taken from him because of his transformation...' The blue haired man morosely thought about his old friend.

"He fed off her recently." Zelretch bluntly stated. Zouken's eyes widened as the older man continued. "The first rule I taught him was to never suck blood from your lover. The emotions are so deep they can make you go wild."

"...she was trying to conceive with Justica's help." Zouken mumbled as the jagged edge of fear sliced through him.

"That would destroy any chance of her giving birth." Zelretch rumbled as he rose. A building storm began to gather in his eyes. "He would never do that to either himself or her unless..."

"He fell." Zouken shot up to his feet. Horror crossed his face. "And if he did just recently...!"

"Justica!" Zelretch cursed and grabbed onto Zouken's arm. He desperately hoped that he was wrong as he drew Zelretch and sliced through the air. Reality bend around the two as a brief storm of kaleidoscope light sprang outwards around them.

When reality returned, both men were standing within the bounds of the Saint of Winter's bedchambers. It had been completely torn apart. Claw marks flayed the walls apart, exposing the interior, as furniture lay smashed.

Multiple women lay around the room in several pieces as the hint of a powerful concealment ward hung in the air, powered by the leylines of the land beneath their feet. Blood coated everything.

"...no!" Zouken cried as he collapsed to his knees. A severed hand bounced away from him as the thick, heady scent of blood caused him to gag when combined with the thought of what had most assuredly happened here.

Zelretch snarled, leaving Zouken where he was for the moment, and swiped his crystal sword once more as he traveled to Nagato's room. It was filled with the corpses of several women as well, just like Justica's bedroom.

Most importantly of all, though...

The bed itself had been thrown aside and several floor boards had been ripped open, revealing a passageway leading underground. Zelretch closed his eyes as Nagato's background as a Hidden Christian came to him.

'Of course he would have an escape tunnel beneath his home.' And considering the heavily powered boundary field in front of it, it had to go to one place. The seat of his power.

Where the Grand Grail was lying.

The Wizard Marshall began to channel his power to begin to shatter the boundary field before him, but to his horror he suddenly recognized the taint that had seemingly been filtering around the mansion for the last few hours.

The Serpent of Akasha had arrived to take Heaven's Feel for himself.

* * *

><p>Zouken was easily blown away by the deathly pallid and snarling beast that Justica had become. While his circuits desperately attempted to suck in the vast amounts of prana the woman generated to weaken her attacks, she had no problems whatsoever.<p>

The magic circuits Nagato...no, Roa...had slipped into her granting her access to the vast power of the leylines beneath them.

Zouken's body was in tatters as the Justica flung about the raw elements like they were nothing with her empowered Wishcraft. His heart was in an even worse state as he saw what had become of the woman he loved.

The homunculus face was warped with savage fury and delight as her ceremonial robes, the Dress of Heaven, hung onto her body by bloodied tatters. The exposed skin beneath the dress would have normally aroused his ardor, but it was stained with blood...

And other things he quite didn't want to think about.

"What's wrong, love? Do you think I'm hideous now?" Justica snarled at Zouken. In the distance, massive explosions of prana erupted along the skyline of the massive cave all three Magi were battling within.

The smell of ozone increased. The hair on the back of his neck rose.

"That's fine. I'm a broken and defective product." A brief look of true hurt crossed the woman's face as she flexed her now claw-like fingers together. It swiftly went away as madness began to shine within her eyes again. "Yet still! Yet still! Yet still I'll complete my master's goal!"

"I'll...stop you!" Zouken coughed up blood as his magic circuits flared.

The cave trembled once again as lightning and a rainbow of light clashed high above as Zouken and Justica rushed at each other at the base of the Grand Holy Grail. The roof high above their head was utterly annihilated, causing the two Magi to skid to a stop.

From above, a short haired blonde woman with gleaming red eyes and sharpened claws descended with a roar.

"Roa...!" Arcueid Brunstud, the Princess ̡of ͠t̸h҉e ͠True͏ ͢Anće͝st̕ơr͞s͟, had arrived to perform her self appointed́͝҉ ̧͏d̨͜͏̡ù̴̵̧͟ţ̶̛͝͏y̛̕ ̴̡̨͢͝t͏̶͜ǫ̡̛̀͡ ̸̴͟ą̨̡̛͞n͘͏̴̛ņ̢̕͞i̛̕͟h̷̵̷̨͠i̕͝͝l͢͠à͠t̛́͘ę̶̀́͜ ͘͠͡͏t̸́͟h̶́́͢͠ę̶̀͞͡ ̸̡͟͞l̛͟a͏̷t͘͞͡è̸̛͜s̵͡t̵͏̴ ́͡͠҉̡i̡҉҉͝n̴͟c̸̴̵͟à̴͏̵͜r̨͝҉ nation of her mortal nemesis from the face...

P͘͡͝ǫ̛͘̕͝Ǫ̀$̧͘͜͡͡%̶҉̵ ^&*

Sh...ap̸͘҉̕į͞5̢҉̸̛1̛͞4̶̢́́̕3́̕͝ !#zzzzzt!

...

* * *

><p>The image of the battle grew hazy and indistinct. Color faded into a grayish brown tone as all the people froze in place.<p>

"I don't want to set the world on fire...

Her name was Ilyasviel von Einzbern.

"I just want to start...

A flame in your heaart...

Today would be the first day of the rest of her life.

"In my heart I have but one desire...

And that one ...is yooou."

She was a proud resident of Castle Einzbern. In the devastated lands of what was formerly known as Germany, she was one of the few, the proud, the Justica model homunculus. Unlike several _lesser_ models, her genetic memories stretched back to the dawn of the Nineteenth Century.

From before the Great Ruin.

"No other will do~"

The Overseer himself had taught her as she was modified from birth with several advantages from the other models. Her mission was simple. It was up to her to save the world, but also take away the stigmata from the residents of Castle Einzberns once and for all.

"I've lost all ambition for worldly acclaim...

To that end, she had been been granted the fragments of the Second Magic, Zelretch, and instructed to perform Summon Servant. The courtyard was filled with silent observers as her sister homunculus and the few remaining human magi in the castle had anxiously watched.

"I just want to be the one you love...

Ilyasviel's spell had concluded in a terrific flash of light that had spat outwards to the crimson tinted Heavens, her spell concluded with a resounding success and the cheers of her clan ringing within her ears.

"And with your admission that you feel the same  
>I'll have reached the goal I'm dreaming of..."<p>

However, the cheers had stalled as a red coated man with white hair had appeared from within the depths of the summoning circle once. Multiple gasps from Ilyasviel's fellow Justica models rose from the crowd as he had summoned an exact duplicate of the Second Magic and gazed deeply into the depths of the blade.

While singing. No one dared to silence him either. Since the Great Ruin, many of the dead had risen once again in various forms, and the one thing that was universal no matter what form they took.

They couldn't be controlled.

"Believe me!  
>I don't want to set the world on fire...<br>I just want to start...  
>A flame in your heart."<p>

A look of distaste crossed the Heroic Spirit's face, but it was banished as his eyes locked onto Ilyasviel's own. A flutter of nervousness rose in her breast, as the eighteen year old walked up to the man.

"I ask you..." Ilyasviel nervously began, licking her lips. With the Grand Grail having been co-opted so long ago, she would have to beg for his aid, and if the Hero standing before her refused her pleas...

He could very easily annihilate the floundering community.

"Will you be my Master?" The Hero's question caused tears to spring to her eyes.

"Thank you..." The crowd went wild around the two of them as the woman threw herself to hug the man as tears poured freely from her eyes. "Thank you so much."

This was now the dawn of the Twenty First Century.

Her name was Ilyasviel von Einzbern, the Eighteenth Maiden to go forth into the Wastelands to attempt to recover Heaven's Feel. However, with the Hero before her, and with the support of her Clan...

Maybe...

Just maybe...

They could return the world to its proper course.

* * *

><p>"<em>War. War Never Changes." - <em>Jubstacheit von Einzbern, current head of Castle Einzbern.

* * *

><p><em>Wise up!<em>

Gauntlet 158-P

[Alchemic Reactor of the Heavens]

Owner: Ilyasviel von Einzbern

Type: Support

Rank: n/a

Also called the "Modern Phantasm" designed to take advantage of the return of the supernatural. Due to the severe reduction of the world's population in the aftermath of the Great Ruin, modern day knowledge all but vanished.

The little bit that remained joined the ranks of folklore and legend by the present day. Not quite attaining the level of a Noble Phantasm, the devices within this alchemical gauntlet do however work quite handling at enhancing the abilities of Mystic Codes and normal magecraft, as the common man now relates what was once Scientific know-how as a branch of Alchemy.

Several different variation of this device exist in the world, and it is a a useful device for any magus.

However, there exists a "SPECIAL" model that only the Einzbern possess after several decades refining the base model. This one allows many Einzbern Maidens to be able to fight on even footing with the rampaging Mutants created in the aftermath of the Great Ruin. Most importantly of all, it also allows the homunculus of the Einzbern lineage to harness a fraction of the family's lost Sorcery trait – Wishcraft.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hahaha. This is going to be great!" Myrddin Emrys hurriedly began to gather together his various tools together. However they crumbled to dust in his hands. The young twelve year old pouted at the sand at the bottom of his cave.

It had been ages since Viviane had sealed him away. By the time he had figured out how to shatter the wards it had been far too late to save Camelot and the bo-girl. Yes. The girl. Best not confuse that or she'd try and turn reenact the Sword in the Stone with his rear playing the sheath for Excalibur.

The wards on his cave had mostly frayed apart to the point he could direct his mind outside the cave now. Sometimes he played a prank here and there to amuse himself. Whispered a thought to some red haired psychic maid there. Inspired some geek to invent a Large Hadron Collider over here.

Mainly he watched porn vicariously through internet users. It was sort of like those Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. Except suckier! Still, someone had finally impressed the young boy enough to make him exert effort in breaking free.

'But my outfit is completely ruined!' Myrddin frowned as he looked down at the brown and smelly robes he was wearing. This wouldn't do at all. He couldn't make a great first impression on young Shirou if he smelled this bad either.

Even if it kind of was the way things were back in his time.

The wizard idly wondered if the Japanese boy would be giving gooey eyes to ol' Arturia if she hadn't gotten a free spit polish before her summon. Well, maybe he would...

People had odd fetishes.

'Well, I can just clean myself up with a spell on the way.' Myrddin eagerly rubbed his hands together as his fingers twitched.

A sparkling, pinprick of light appeared in the dark cave. Suddenly, the light expanded, its gaping maw revealing a spiraling aurora amidst a deep blue plane. Sparking with lightning, the revealed gap in space formed before him, blue waves of light seeming to flow from out of view, forming a shimmering plane, whorls of light and dark twirling through it.

This was majesty. This power to tear apart the fabric of space and time was his birthright.

"Whee!" This was the most awesome ride ever!

Myrddin dove into the portal with both legs tucked closely to his body.

* * *

><p>Presenting...<p>

…

_World 2019214, Variant 6 – Familiar of...?_

_…_

* * *

><p>The Springtime Familiar Ritual in the Tristain Academy of Magic was upon them again. The sacred ritual had been started by Brimir, their lord and founder, to allow the Nobles of the continent of Halkeginia to call forth familiars. These familiars in turn would act like a sign for their teachers in helping guide their future development. This year would be one of the larger gatherings on record and many sons and daughters of important families of the land of Tristain.<p>

Her name used to be Charlotte Helene Orléans de Gallia. But now she was simply...

"Tabitha. It's your turn." Professor Colbert offers her a genial smile. Yet something within the blue haired girl always tensed whenever she saw the professor. From the way the older man's fingers tightened around the shaft of his staff every time she approached, he could tell something was different with her as well.

Just as well, really. She could never show her real self around her. Even Kirche didn't completely understand her. Tabitha couldn't allow herself to think any differently because one day she may be ordered to stab a friend in the back.

At any point she could receive the call from Isabella de Gallia. So she merely stood and observed. She analytically took in the tips of Professor Colbert's hands, weathered and callused. Those devices of his could have perhaps caused the damage, but most likely hard labor built up those calluses on his hands as she nodded her readiness at the man.

Tabitha's mouth moved in patterns she had spent hours preparing herself for over the last few days. A hefty amount of her money for the month had already been used in just candles from the sleepless nights she had committed so she could automatically weaved the spell. She couldn't afford to drop her guard in large crowds such as these.

No, never again could she drop her guard. Enough people had died or been driven mad on her because she had been compliant.

Fortunately for her, the magic of the wind element had many applications. Tabitha's eyes swept casually over to Professor Colbert as she added a tiny twitch to her staff. The extra motion seemed to be nothing more than an unconscious motion to everyone in the crowd.

Yet Tabitha fed her will to it none the less as her mind used it to bring in the sounds of the children surrounding her. Their words were filtered and sorted in order of natural decibels to her ears. She paid special care to stagger their arrival so it didn't hit her ears at once.

'Not surprising that he noticed.' Tabitha thought as she saw Colbert raise an eyebrow at her. He was still gripping onto the staff with a personable air to his stance. Too much of a personable air to her senses. The last time she had seen something like that had been when she first met Isabella. Just before Isabella had found out that she had no obligation to play nice with the young Tabitha.

The shrieks and yells of the children around them struck onto Professor Colbert like tiny little needles. Just like when she had decided to use her wind magic to easvedrop on her classmates. His left cheek twitched a bit and for a moment his smile would dim.

Before resuming twice as powerfully as before.

"I'm not a Zero!" A loud shriek went up. Several of Tabitha's fellow nobles began to laugh. The blue haired girl narrowed her eyes as she focused on Professor Colbert.

Left cheek twitch. Dimming smile.

His eyes swiveled towards Tabitha.

Smile radiantly. Smile falsely.

As the voices of her classmates began to filter in. On a higher level she analyzed the sounds of conversation from every person. Steady droning filterd by the speech's natural decibel ranges began to filter through. Those were ignored in favor of voices that rose or lowered sharply from the normal tone of voice for the speakers.

Those...those were the ones to always keep an eye on. Either as potential attackers or saboteurs.

"-such a Zero!"

"Kirche, you-!"

Tabitha sighed and immediately dismissed that conversation out of habit. Kirche and the de la Vallière were both infamous throughout the school for the rivalry they had inherited from their families. Although it really was more like a case of bullying to Tabitha's eyes. She once again made a mental note to keep a closer eye on the de la Vallière. Perhaps she could flag her as a possible contact for a second mole in the country.

Doubtful from what she had researched on the girl's history, though. She'd have to consult Isabella and question if further pressure could be brought to bear. Perhaps she could gain an ally, even if an unintentional one, in keeping an eye on the nobility around the school.

Well, if the de la Vallière managed to perform a summon, that is.

Tabitha suddenly felt a twitch near her heart. The only times she ever felt like that were when she cast enchantments and minor magicks unaffiliated to her element. Good to know that the ritual was beginning to draw on her body. The next step of the ritual would be for the summoning spell to take every last trace of Will that was attuned towards the wind and draw it into a portal. This would act like a beacon for a summon so its nature would sync with hers.

Lastly and most unfortunately, she would be reduced to only the most base of magick for a whole day. There were two fail safes for this ritual. The amount used was to prevent the sacred summoning ritual from being used for combat purposes. The second fail safe was designed to allow the Noble to recover after only a short amount of time.

The unaligned Will within the body of a person would then swell in time to the emotions of the summoner and noble and swiftly be restored within a day. The school was closed during that time to prevent people from using up the remaining dredges of their Will and slowing down their recovery.

'What's going on?' Tabitha kept a cool look on her face; but internally she actually was thrown for a loop. A swirling blue portal had appeared high in the sky a full three words before she had completed the ritual.

Professor Colbert joined her in looking up at the portal.

'How can the spell have gone on with so little Will usage?' Tabitha demanded. Only the smallest amount of her wind aligned Will had been drained from her when the portal appeared. 'Can it be...an attack?'

The blue haired girl rapidly began to glance about. Her eyes flicked around at everything in her field of vision as time went on. In addition, she began to call on her power to cast a field of wind magic behind her. Her cloak fluttered as the winds grew still with the heavy trace of magic as she cast her senses of smell and hearing behind her with the aid of the winds.

Tabitha calmed down as soon as confirmation of non-hostiles was made.

However, Professor Colbert didn't have the abilities she had, so he spent a few more moments glancing around sharply. In those few moments, not only did Tabitha get to see a rather interestingly intense look, but the others in the field likewise caught onto something not being right.

"Tabitha, what's going on?" Kirche's voice hollered to her from the sidelines. The blue haired girl gave the statuesque redhead a brief look before she hefted her crooked Shepherd's staff up towards the portal high above in the skies.

"Weird summons." Tabitha imparted her observation to the daughter of the Zerbst lineage. While several of the people standing around Kirche seemingly stepped on their cloaks in a stumbling stagger, her red haired compatriot merely nodded with a keen look as she gazed upwards.

Why Kirche never made it a point to dispel the rumors about her being a bubble-headed tart Tabitha never knew. Most likely because such crass stupidity was an undesirable trait amongst the Germanians. So long as she remained an air headed wench she had free reign to stay in a foreign land and manage her own affairs...

Tabitha saw Kirche tease a boy with short green hair by stroking his chin with her index finger.

...or maybe she was just a believer in free love? Tabitha had a summoning to complete, regardless of Kirche's more earthy proclivities, and she set herself to do so. This was taking entirely too much time out of her day as it was.

"Greet?" Tabitha asked Professor Colbert after intently gazing up at the portal above and then at held up her staff.

A moment of indecision crossed the older man's face as he looked at her. Professor Colbert apparently resolved his situation to his satisfaction because he gave her a nod a few moments later. "...that's fine. I'll go with you, though."

Tabitha nodded and raised her staff as she used her wind magick to levitate herself without any fuss. She waited for Professor Colbert to join her before the two began to rise to the skies high above. Down below they could hear a very familiar explosion go off though.

Neither of the two needed to say anything as they both sped up their flight. The de la Vallière was getting _impatient_. It was a very simple equation in Tabitha and Colbert's minds as they pressed themselves into going faster.

Louise + Anything = Explosion.

"Let's try to draw something out by using..." Professor Colbert was swiftly interrupted as a body came out of the portal at high speeds and smashed into her head.

'Oh. It's a little boy. Hello little boy...' Tabitha drunkenly thought as her eyes crossed at seeing, and smelling, the little street urchin from close range. Her lips briefly tingled as warm flesh pressed up against her pale lips.

The blue haired girl's vision flashed with exploding bursts of light and darkness as she lost her flight. Both her and the boy began to swiftly soar towards the ground in a wildly uncontrolled and unscheduled reverse levitation ritual.

"First step out of the cave and a girl throws herself at my lips! I'm such a stud!" The dirty little boy attached to her front whooped.

'Whee...' Tabitha internally snarked as her throbbing headache forced her eyes shut.

* * *

><p>Tabitha slowly opened her eyes. She immediately regretted ever setting foot on this earth as pain became her very existence.<p>

Every mote of dust in the air mockingly twirled and danced before her blue eyes as she cooly glanced at the ceiling. Cooly hoping the cracked stone two inches to her right would just _freeze over and dro..._p ever so gently and softly on top of the eagerly vibrating twelve year old sitting at her side.

Now why was the boy she had summoned so eagerly vibrating? For that matter, why was Kirche doing the same on the opposite side of her bed. It was entirely too soon after waking up to see the overly endowed girl do-_why was she paying attention to this?_

"You're awake! Hurrah!" The twelve year old cheered. He was now wearing the same uniform that she wore and Kirche paid lipservice to possibly wearing if it didn't get in the way of showing off her bronze skin and figure. He lashed out with his hands and eagerly cupped her left hand, which she swore she was not curling up in a fist at all, and shook it up and down. "I'm Myrddin Emrys! How are you doing?"

Tabitha dazedly looked away from the overly rambunctious child. Her surroundings were sheathed in a thin silk curtain but it didn't prevent her from glancing past the thin material to see the rest of the school's infirmary. The young boy was sitting on the left side of her bed and a very familiar redhead was on her right side.

"Help?" Tabitha glanced over at Kirche pleadingly.

The Germanian chuckled. "He's just excited, Tabitha! Today was a day of firsts! It's enough to light up my romantic soul on fire! A once in a lifetime event where a Noble summons not only a commoner but also a **demon**."

Tabitha tensed and nearly shot upwards as she gazed over at the smiling boy. She began to curl her free fingers for an attack but Kirche merely laughed.

"Don't get scared! It was Louise that did that second summon." Kirche grinned over at the boy. "Besides its flash and bang no one was hurt as badly as you were when you came down head first from above. Just a bit of minor water magic patched them up."

"Yeah! First it was like...nothing happened! Then the girl collapsed and went 'waah waah'. Then a maaaassive fireball went up like bang, bang, bang, you know?" Myrddin eagerly grinned over at Tabitha.

Each of his dramatic reenactment of the event caused the blue haired girl to wince as her head throbbed with each sound as he wiggled her left arm around with grand gestures. "Then this big guy just up and shouts "'I AM THE ETERNAL FIREBEAST, fear me!' and people shrieked and ran."

"Mmm... then the flame demon vanished. Only a rather muscular young man was left standing in the aftermath, but Professor Colbert got in my way before I could see who it was that Louise so eagerly rushed to kiss." Kirche gently sighed as she ran a finger along her full lips thoughtfully.

"The Professor is busy with the rest of the staff. Looks like the poor guy is going to be getting locked down for a while thanks to the actions of that attention whore." Myrddin quietly mused. "That demon of metal always was a bit too showy..."

"Professor Colbert wanted you to try Contract Servant to just confirm the theory." Kirche continued. She eagerly smiled. "Once we're done we can go talk to Louise about her summons too!"

"...legal?" Tabitha glanced over at the smiling boy and then over at Kirche. She wasn't feeling too comfortable with binding a fellow human being into unbreakable service. It stank too much of what her nominal uncle, and ruler of her country, King Joseph had done to her.

"He's a commoner, right?" The red haired Germanian shrugged.

Tabitha chewed on the inside of her cheek from saying anything as she looked at Kirche and then at the boy.

"Eh? 'Commoner'?" The boy sounded the word out. From the look in his eyes, Tabitha got the impression he didn't know what that meant.

It hurt the rather jaded girl to see the boy have to be introduced to the politics of the magic using Nobles and the ones beneath

"Young Myrddin would do much better with us guiding him." Kirche continued as she reached over to ruffle the boy's hair. She gave the boy a motherly smile. "You don't have to slave away doing back breaking labor anymore. You'll be taken care of by your cool big sisters, Tabitha and Kirche!"

"Yes, Big Sis Kirche!" Myrddin chirped.

'He isn't a puppy.' Tabitha thought to herself with an internal sigh. So, she had been reduced to this, was she? Kiss a boy that barely looked old enough to be in the first year of the academy? One that was proving to be a bit of a deviant at his age by playing along with Kirche's big sister routine with a gleam in his eyes?

"Fine." Tabitha began chanting the words to finish binding the boy to her. On the last word she leaned forwards and pecked the boy on the forehead under Kirche's watchful eyes. A moment passed and nothing happened.

Tabitha frowned a little.

"...maybe we can try it again?" Kirche offered as an ominous chill went up her spine. Myrddin continued luxuriating in getting his head patted and forehead kissed to be brought to comment.

…

"...epic fail." Tabitha hung her head after her twentieth try binding Myrddin. A light pink blush was across her pale cheeks. She wiggled further below her bed and attempted to bring up her covers up to hide her face.

Her face of shame!

'When did up become down?' Kirche was gaping in shock at seeing Tabitha fail where Louise had succeeded.

'I'm really glad I didn't turn right at Albuquerque.' Myrddin thought in a happy daze as he slumped back against his seat. Now he most definitely had to hang around this place! He'd be a fool not to come by between Big Sis Kirche and this amorous blue haired girl!

"What do we tell Professor Colbert, Tabitha...?" Kirche's eyebrows knit together as she gripped her left arm worriedly with her right hand. "If you can't use Contract Servant..."

'I'm going to be removed.' Tabitha shook a bit as the desperation and shame from her multiple failures began to darken into fear. If she failed here there would be no more point for King Joseph to keep her mother alive...

She tightened her fists around her blanket.

"...where do the runes appear?" Myrddin asked. His partial nature as an incubus allowed him to view into the emotions of others more easily. The tone that Kirche had adopted didn't bode well for Tabitha.

"Why?" Tabitha wondered tonelessly.

"Because we can just fake them." Myrddin began.

Tabitha continued gazing at the bed quietly. Kirche gave the boy a wan smile. "It can be anywhere on the familiar's body, but they check to make sure they're on the familiar here."

"Ah, that would be a problem wouldn't it?" Myrddin mused. "But I have a solution!"

Both girls gazed over at the boy.

"Bring me your pet lizard, a knife, and something really strong to drink." Myrddin wiggled his fingers as the two nobles stared at him in shock. "I'm feeling _artistic_."

A lump formed in Tabitha's throat.

"W-what are you going to do?" Kirche stuttered and looked pale. It appeared she had seen the meaning beneath Myrddin's words as well.

"You two just take care of me after this, alright?" Myrddin's words were innocent.

"Yes." Tabitha's eyes began to water.

* * *

><p>'Hm. About the same level of swelling as Louise's servant.' Colbert mused as he inspected the swollen and reddened right hand of the twelve year old that Tabitha had summoned. Several fresh lacerations were on his skin from where the familiar runes were branded.<p>

But these actually looked like the normal runes granted to Familiars and not like the ones burnt onto Louise's familiar. He glanced up from the runes, which were pulsing with magical energies, to glance up at the boy.

"Do you need me to call a healer?" Colbert gently asked the young child.

"No. This isn't a big deal at all." Myrddin grinned at the professor. His eyes twinkled with mirth.

'Hardy boy.' Colbert nodded approvingly.

"Well, Contract Servant was successfully cast." Colbert glanced over at Tabitha and Kirche. The two both looked surprised for some odd reason, though. "Good job, Tabitha."

Tabitha merely nodded. Her mind raced with how they had managed to pull this off on one of the professors exposed to the summoning ritual year after year.

"Of course. She's the best!" Kirche boasted to try and cover up her own shock. The redhead's eyes glanced down at her curiously silent familiar. Flame, her salamander from Fire Dragon Mountain, had been intensely staring at Myrddin from the moment he had been brought in so they could refer to his runes.

'Now, isn't that strange...' The Germanian mused.

"Hm. Well, be that as it may, I'll go ahead and mark down your familiar as ..." Colbert trailed off as he glanced over at the boy.

"Myrddin Emyrs, sir." The boy pleasantly nodded.

"Alright. I'll leave you four." Colbert glanced up at Tabitha. "Please rest yourself. It was a hectic day for everyone involved."

Tabitha slowly nodded as she clutched at her blankets as the older man turned and began walking way.

Colbert paused as he passed a set of knives on a tray set towards the back corner. One of the otherwise stainless blades was coated with blood. He looked back at the mixed group of familiars and Nobles for a few moments.

'...can't be.' He slowly shook his head as he reached for the door and exited the infirmary.

"What was that all about?" Kirche questioned Myrddin directly once she was sure enough time had passed.

"Hmm?" Myrddin looked up from where he was leaning over to stroke Flame's head. The salamander had its eyes closed in pleasure.

"...well, never mind." Kirche sighed as she looked over at Tabitha. "Are you feeling up to leaving this place now?"

"Talk?" Tabitha slowly wondered. Both she and Kirche knew that it couldn't possibly be that easy.

"Yeah...we really need to figure out what to do." Kirche didn't really feel that good about things. Even if they had wound up keeping Tabitha around.

"You promised booze, Big Sis." Myrddin softly complained as he held up his hand. He wasn't liking the troubled expression both girls were sharing. "I need something to dull things."

'Better get them thinking about other things.' Myrddin thought as he continued eyeing the happy salamander at his feet. Something that most definitely wasn't around on Earth. Much less all the other crazy things he had seen so far. 'Plus I really want to find out what's going on in this world.'

Both girls shared a glance. What was the worst that could happen?

* * *

><p>A trio of humans and a flame tailed salamander made their way through the stone hallways on the first floor. The fresh breeze of the morning air wafted past them as they crossed windows on their way to the dining hall. They turned down a four way intersection and headed to the west.<p>

Both Tabitha and Kirche awkardly shuffled behind Myrddin early the next morning. Neither of the two really wanted to glance at each other. When one of them did they would go and blush bright red and whip their gaze away from each other.

Yet there was a spark of satisfaction in Kirche's eyes. Tabitha merely had a light pink flush going strong.

Myrddin merely kept a happy little prance going as he kept a hand on Flame's wide back.

Neither of the two girls exactly wanted to find out how much he had seen.

The silence was starting to get tiring to the boy wizard, though. His fingers twitched as they passed by some maids as he used a form of hypnosis. Myrddin's magic circuits flared with internal magic as he looked into the eyes of the salamander.

'Can you understand me?' The boy wondered as he banked on his own partially inhuman nature to not make this more straining on his brain than it should be.

'Aah! I knew there was something off about you!' Flame declared.

The four of them crossed out into the open courtyard. The ground beneath them remained paved even as grass sprang up alongside them. Up ahead the main building rose along with the dining hall. Over to the right they could see various students miling about the far edges of the yard gesturing at something eagerly.

"Hm? What could that be?" Myrddin wondered out loud.

"Could be nothing..." Kirche uneasily began. "But it doesn't seem like that."

'Smells like another dragon. My master really synchronized well with my senses.' Flame praised the redhead. 'She just has no experience accessing my senses yet.'

"Investigate." Tabitha glanced over at Myrddin and then over at the crowd. She somehow managed to fight her flush down as she lightly tapped her staff against the ground.

"Yeah, the last thing we want is for Louise's familiar to break free because she tried to whip it or make it wash her underwear." Kirche joked. A smirk crossed her full lips. "Although I would totally understand if it ran at the sight of her unmentionables."

Tabitha glanced over at Kirche and shook a finger disapprovingly.

The Germanian snickered, "Myrddin! Watch Flame for me while we go and see what's going on, alright?" She gave the boy a bright smile and the two started running to join the crowd.

'Let's go after them, Flame. Their curiosity is going to get themselves in trouble. Especially if it's a mature dragon.' Myrddin replied to the salamander as both of them rushed after their dependents.

'It's their nature as humans, my friend.' The salamander solemnly intoned.

* * *

><p>"Aaah! It really is a dragon!" One of the Nobles shouted from the midst of a crowd. Their murmurings grew loud as they attempted to crowd around the deep blue dragon. It was at least sixteen feet tall and over fifteen feet long from nose to tail.<p>

Her name was Irukukwu. She was profoundly disturbed at finding herself waking up to being completely surrounded by curiously tiny creatures.

The green eyed dragon took another step back as the crowd tightened around her. She drew her wings close to her to prevent the crowd from touching her and let out a plaintive roar. Couldn't they just go away?

'Where's mother?' Her long sinuous neck rose high over the crowd as she looked around with worried eyes.

"The beast is trying to take flight!" One of the girls in the crowd shouted. "We have to take it down before it does!"

"What if it's a normal dragon, you idiot?" Another girl shouted. "Or worse, someone's familiar?"

"I'm not seeing the familiar runes! Plus look at how intelligent it's acting. That's a sign of a rhyme dragon if there ever was!"

Irukukwu drew back towards a corner of the courtyard as some of the crowd began to follow after the dragon again. These Noble's eyes gleamed darkly while the others looked either undecided or disgusted with the actions of their fellows.

"We'd make a fortune selling her. Plus if it is a normal dragon we can still sell her anyway." Only six Nobles remained arrayed around the dragon at this point.

"Hey! Stop right there, criminal scum!" Kirche boomed as she and Tabitha began pushing their way through the crowd. Myrddin and Flame silently trailed in their wake. "What sort of impression are you idiots trying to make on the newcomers to the academy, anyway?"

Some of the crowd, visibly about the same age as Myrddin, were murmuring to themselves and looking over the proceedings eagerly.

"Zerbst, shut the hell up! Germanians like you shouldn't complain. I know your people go through all manner of hoops to earn money too! I'm just exercising my rights differently." A male Noble sniffed dismissively.

"Yes, it's true that we have to make our own way to be Nobles in my land, but none of us would dare to even attempt to make a spectacle of breaking the rules in front of witnesses! You know we're not allowed to do such things during school season." Kirche snapped.

"No poaching." Tabitha warned him and the others with a glint of steel in her eyes. The temperature around the six Nobles began to lower noticeably.

Irukukwu began to flutter her wings nervously as the urge to take flight began to increase. Yet something within her knew that she'd immediately be killed if she did. The one girl that had started the affair was eying her speculatively as she held onto a piece of wood that sent alarms ringing in her head.

'Be calm, child.' Irukukwu's nostrils flared as the scent of a fellow dragon flooded his senses. Her tense wings drooped slightly as she looked around and gazed upon an odd pair. A three foot tall crimson salamander quickly walking alongside a younger creature.

Myrddin lightly pushed in between Tabitha and the Nobles arrayed around the dragon. Flame and he then quickly walked up to the dragon fearlessly before anyone could react.

"Myrddin! Hold on!" Kirche begged. She took a step forwards but was met by two of the poaching Nobles who had their wands ready.

'Wait!' Tabitha's eyes widened as she flung herself past that initial barricade. Yet even her speed was stopped as the other four rushed in and boxed her.

"No. If that boy is that suicidal, then let him!" Tabitha's gaze went bright red as she contemplated mauling the four Nobles around her.

'Who...are you two?' Irukukwu glanced down at Myrddin and Flame curiously.

'My name is Flame, child.' The salamander whipped his tail about gently. 'A resident of Fire Dragon Mountain.'

"Hello! I'm Myrddin. What's your name, miss?" The boy grinned.

"Kyuuyuiiii..." Irukukwu sang her name to the two.

"Irukukwu is a really pretty name." Myrddin praised. The dragon tipped her head shyly.

Simultaneously many jaws in the crowd dropped in shock.

'You must come from a noble lineage. May I ask what brings you to these lands?' Flame gently questioned.

'Irukukwu was... Irukukwu was supposed to have left yesterday.' The dragon began to babble. 'Mommy told Irukukwu to be a good girl and work to be a splendid dragon by going into a big blue hole in the sky. I was going to go through but it closed! Mommy said wishy-washy 'hoomenz' were bad and that we'd just wait until next time. I fell asleep with mommy, but I woke up today and mommy was gone!'

Irukukwu began to tense up and begin flapping her wings rapidly as she looked around as she suffered a mild panic attack.

"Just...!" Myrddin held a hand up to the dragon as he felt the others behind him begin to tense. The feel of magic began to gather. "...just calm down. You came here because you were summoned. Just like yesterday."

'R-really?' Irukukwu slowly lowered her head. She quirked her head to the side.

The boy turned towards Tabitha, "Big sis? Can you come up here? Irukukwu wants to talk to you."

"Hey! You can't just deci-eh?" One of the four Nobles surrounding Tabitha yelped as a crimson salamander smashed his wide head into the back of his legs, knocking him over as his knees buckled.

'Wench, get to walking.' Flame hissed down at the fallen Noble. He went pale at seeing the salamander's large head draw close to his face.

"What? That isn't fa-" The girl that had started this mess began to shout, but had a crooked Shepherd's staff introduced to the back of her head with a loud crack. Her eyes rolled up to the back of her head as she collapsed to the ground unconscious.

"Oops." Tabitha breathed as she looked at the other two Nobles around her coolly. "Hand slipped."

The other two nervously gulped as they stepped back and lightly bumped up against Kirche. The Germanian slapped her hands heavily down on their shoulders and grinned as she turned their heads to face her.

"Now, I think it's best we go and have a nice chat with Old Osmond, right?" Kirche offered with a gentle smile with a hint of teeth in it. "Let him know what exactly happened here, right?"

"T-that isn't..." One of the remaining two Nobles glanced out at the crowd. They were pointedly glancing away. Some were even twiddling their thumbs. One just bit his thumb at them.

Guiche de Gramont had his earlobe tugged on harshly by Montmorency Margarita la Fère de Montmorency.

"Don't be so rude." The drill haired Montmorency quietly hissed into Guiche's ear. She fluffed her long blonde hair a bit arrogantly. What would the man-child ever do without her? "At least publically."

The blond haired Noble delicately sniffed at his rose wand, "Of course, my beloved Monmon. I merely lost myself at seeing such vile deeds."

"...right." The second surviving Noble sighed as he looked over at the lightly roasted duo that had attempted to hold Kirche back.

"Tabitha! I'm going on ahead with these two. Just get the dragon out of here, okay?" Kirche called out to the slim blue haired girl as she forced the two boys with her to start marching. "Come on, Flame!"

'I must head out with my master now. Please handle affairs in my stead, my friend.' Flame glanced over at Myrddin. Once the boy nodded at him, the salamander started head butting the Noble he had knocked over and forced him to scramble after Kirche.

Tabitha remained quiet as the crowd began to break apart and head to the dining hall. She glanced over at Myrddin and the deep blue dragon.

"Talk." The blue haired girl glanced at Myrddin seriously.

"Well, you can say I have ...experience with dragon girls." The boy gave her a genial smile.

Tabitha quirked an eyebrow as she silently needled him for more information.

Myrddin held up his scarred hand and in a flash of light he healed it. A light trace of scarring showed on it to leave it whitened. "I guess this girl here was your familiar all along. So, if you bind Irukukwu then you won't have to worry about us holding this facade up."

"...liar." The blue haired girl's expression faltered slightly.

The boy rapidly waved his hands back and forth. "No! Nonono! It's not that...it's just that I didn't want your professor to fail you because I interrupted your summon." He began. "Besides, you remind me of a friend I knew once..."

Tabitha perked up. She looked over at the blue dragon. Irukukwu looked utterly fascinated by all of this

"Yeah, just use Contract Servant." Myrddin grinned.

Tabitha nodded. She leaned forward and placed a light kiss on the snout of the dragon after a quick chant of the spell.

Both the Noble and the dragon felt the sacred bond form between the two of them as a flare of soft white light formed beneath the two.

'...Big Sister!' Irukukwu crooned as she leaned forwards and gave Tabitha a sloppy lick along her front and face. The strength behind the motion was strong enough to lift Tabitha entirely off the ground and draw out a brief shriek of surprise from the blue haired girl.

Myrddin burst out laughing as Irukukwu's long tail swayed back and forth eagerly as Tabitha landed back on the earth in a stumble with a bright red blush. Her staff clattered to the ground at her side as she placed one hand up at her cheek and used the other to shift her skirt lower.

"Dragons and girls as far as the eye can see." The boy breathed out in nostalgia. He clapped his hands together. "Alright, I think I rather like this place too."

Tabitha glanced over at him curiously.

"I ask you: Would you like to be an apprentice?" Myrddin smirked. He continued on seeing the girl's look of confusion. "I'll spend a week here with you and another with the original boy I decided to train. I think it's best for all parties involved..."

'Arturia would go mad if I stuck around all the time.' The wizard thought in amusement.

Tabitha paused for a few moments. In the time the boy had been around she had been turned into a sky to surface missile, failed casting two elementary spells multiple times, gotten drunk, and assaulted people.

...they were the two most exciting days of her life.

"Why knife?" Tabitha asked while nodding in agreement. The boy in front of her was obviously a Noble. Plus he had that mystery about him from the summoning. Something she was genuinely curious about.

"For the beerz."


	4. Chapter 4

Presenting...

…

_World 89 – The Grim Adventures of Tokiomi and Shirou_

_…_

People say murder is a crime. But let's think about it. Aren't there billions of humans crowding this Earth? Uryu Ryunosuke knew very well how outrageous that number was. He had counted gravels in the park when he was a kid.

He had gotten frustrated after ten thousand. It was unforgettable to him even now. To think there were at least five hundred thousand times as many humans. The planet would forget him for trimming some off the top.

"Fill, fill, filling, fill. With each repetition, four times― eh, five times? Err, only when it's full, break it up... Is it? Yeah."

Reciting the summoning chant, Ryunosuke drew on the wooden floor of the living room with his bloody brush. The ceremony really is some serious business; that ambiance isn't Ryunosuke's style at

all. The serious mood was for his personal satisfaction; after all, what's important is the feeling.

Having practiced the magic circle all night, he finished it in one go. There was no need for reserves anymore, then. Even though he had killed the parents and the youngest son to draw their blood.

"Fill, fill, filling, filling, fill, there. That's five times alright. Okay?"

The leftover blood seemed suitable for some fine art on the walls of the room. Waiting for a reaction, he turned toward the last survivor rolled up in the corner― a fourteen year old girl with short brown hair.

"Say – girl, do you believe in demons?" Ryunosuke wondered. The girl screamed behind the roll of duct tape he had used to bind her mouth and squirmed in his bonds. Ryunosuke frowned. He liked kids better. However this time around the boy had made so much noise he had to go first with the adults. The girl had been nearly catatonic throughout the whole expose and left the killer to his careful preparation of the cool ceremony.

"I guess not." Ryunosuke answered his own question with a sigh. The Fuyuki newspapers had labeled him a demon since he had come across an old worn down book in an abandoned warehouse. At the time he had been wandering around in a haze of ennui as murder had begun to grow as stale and repetitive to him as watching the false reality of 'death' on television and movies.

His mood began to improve when he glanced at the magic circles, though. His perfection of the arts within the book were definitely cool. Now that he had refined this style, he could go back to his much less sensational murders.

Still...what to do with the girl. Ryunosuke glanced over at her with a thoughtful hum. She was a slim girl. Pretty plain overall. Definitely no sense of style suggested. Pretty boring person.

"Not really worth being pounced on by a leopard." The auburn haired man mused as his fang pendant swung in front of his chest. He pondered what to do with her as he paced around in his velvet dress shirt and black pants.

"Anyway. If by any chance, a demon really comes out, wouldn't it be stupid to not have anything to drink and chat? So, boy... If Mr. Demon here does pay me a visit, how about a little killing?"

"...!"

The teenage girl could understand well enough Ryunosuke's idea. Ryunosuke beamed when the teenager, her eyes wide open, started twisting and struggling around without a scream.

"I wonder how it is to be killed by a demon. Will it go zip or splash, that gotta be some fun to watch. Not something you see everyday― ah ouch!"

The unexpected sting was like a cold shower on Ryunosuke's frenzy.

That was the back of his right hand. He felt an intense pain as if he had bathed his hand in a powerful poison. As soon as the pain started, the swelling calmed down and stuck on the surface of his skin.

"... What the, hell? This..."

Somehow, a pattern like a tattoo was there on his pained right hand, and he had no idea why.

"... Eeh." Ryunosuke held his hand up. A skull with gemstones for eyes had appeared on the back of his hand. In each of the gemstones, the western symbol for the number three appeared. Looked kind of like a tribal tattoo.

'Cool.' The homicidal maniac shrugged it off. He flipped open his book and began to chant. The blood in the air, especially the one provided by the young child, began to dance around the center of the magic circle like live snakes. They swayed and bent to his will.

"Mmph?" The young girl wailed from behind her gags as she saw the impossible as space completely wrenched and twisted apart with a flash of lightning.

A jet black staff with a wickedly sharp scythe blade appeared first.

"-Ooh." Ryunosuke's eyes lit up. This was most definitely something he had always wanted to see! Something cool! Something unique!

Yet the man didn't realize one fatal thing as he had broken off his chant to muse over his new experience.

The scythe was swung. Blood splattered across the terrified looking young woman's face.

"You stopped the ritual before it could empower the binding on the circle, Master." A woman's voice spoke with mock concern_._

So Ryunosuke finally got to experience for himself what he had granted to so many others. Death. It was like they say...

Cool.

* * *

><p>The King of Conquerors, Iskander – Rider, was the first to fall. He had approached her and the human she had turned into her puppet with the powers contained within the trunk she had called after taking care of her original Master. The large man had wanted to unite all the Heroic Spirits summoned in this Holy Grail War and lead them to world conquest.<p>

Caster had mentally scoffed, but had kept up a pleasant veneer. She had learned from her youth that it was best to hide some things, and her constant look of apathy back then had always kept people wary around her.

Best not try anything quite yet. Besides, it was sort of fun to think about conquering the world. She had had many a dream when she was younger about doing such a thing, after all.

So Caster had joined Rider and Saber at the King's Banquet. It sort of reminded her of the old days as Rider was as excitable as Billy ever was, while Saber sort of tolerated it all with a strained smile like Grim had. However, the voice of the presence commanding this ceremony was pounding in the back of her head like a jackhammer.

_**Release me! Release me! Release me!**_

The last thing Caster would do was tolerate being ordered by some lesser being. Even if she was twisted to the core – she'd do things her way. So with a little bit of humor, she had agreed to Rider's inane plan on taking over the world.

"Here you go. Just call me." Caster had even thrown in a wink as she handed a sheer white skull. The right eye-socket was replaced with a rotary dial while the lower jaw of the skull was replaced with a deep purple handset. "Whenever you want." The woman faked a convincing sounding purr as she left the banquet with her quiet master.

Rider smiled as his eyes dropped slightly down to Caster's swaying rear in her pitch black short dress.

"Your testosterone is showing, Rider." Saber huffed. Rider snapped back to attention as her Master, Irisviel Einzbern, and Rider's Master, Waver, laughed at the other side of the meeting.

* * *

><p>Later on in the night, the phone had done its duty, and both Rider and Waver had been driven quite mad once they picked up the phone. Screeches from unworldly parts of reality wailed from within the headset and bombarded them and the elderly couple they were staying with. The old couple instantly transformed into alien looking squid like monstrosities.<p>

Rider had attempted to fight, but the constant wailing had lowered his abilities enough in the moment of surprise that one of the two surviving creatures had taken Waver. The Magus's resistance was not enough to completely transform him, but half of his body had been forcibly converted to a jellyfish like consistency. The side with the Command Seal.

"**Join us.**" The maddened Magus commanded with a voice that warbled with tones of whale song.

Rider had no choice between the combined forces arrayed against him. His sword, a prototype that had been designed for him by one of his beloved companions, fell from his hands as the King of Conqueror sadly stepped off the stage of this Grail War as his clothing ripped apart as he transformed into one of the alien monsters.

* * *

><p>A empty eyed girl was chewing on a wheat sandwich with pepperjack cheese, bacon, tomato, and mustard. The blonde Servant sitting next to her was really directing the teenager's motions as she drew strength from the bond between the two of them as the duo sat on the gates of Ryuudou Temple.<p>

Far in the distance, near the wharf, the city burned to ashes as a monstrous horror, fused from the bodies and souls of an entire legion of corrupted Heroic Spirits into a multi-tentacled horror, rampaged about without end. Occasionally, massive bursts of prana erupted to take off a limb, but the monster regenerated the damage so long as the 'core' remained active...and producing Ionioi Hetairoi.

Waver and Rider had turned out to have quite an impressive trump card when fused with her own magic, that was for sure. Still, it might be best to go ahead and investigate things a bit better. Caster summoned her scythe. Its keen edge reflected her crystal blue eyes briefly as she sliced through the air.

The dimensional tear opened wide and exposed the battle from up close.

Berserker – Lancelot of the Lake, was currently engaged in the skies above the battle in an F-15. Caster was rather impressed as the machine had somehow gained the ability to become a Noble Phantasm with the Black Knight's usage of his skills. Down below, Lancer and Saber were absolute demons as they raced about at speeds that would guarantee Caster's death if she ever directly fought them. The Master's Vision she had taken from Ryunosuke showed her that Saber had an even more troublesome Magic Resistance trait that would render her attacks worthless.

"Better snip that in the bud." Caster mused. Her gaze rushed up to Cthulhu. "Take a fall, but do it while getting rid of one of them." She commanded. The skull tattoo on her new Master's hand flared as the number in the eye-sockets was reduced to 2.

Cthulhu triggered all the individual Noble Phantasms in its body to break at once. The overloaded Phantasms promptly shattered into a massive conflagration of power.

* * *

><p>"I didn't mean it quite so explosively." Caster sighed as she sat in a side dimension with her puppet. The command seal had completely burnt itself out as the blonde had to use up the last two miracles to empower her copy of Grim's Scythe enough to actually allow them to temporarily hide from the backlash of Cthulhu's passing.<p>

* * *

><p>"...Archer, this is the end." Tokiomi Tohsaka sighed as he looked at the encroaching wave of fire out from the window of his home.<p>

"It wouldn't have been if you had let me try and aid them." Archer – Shirou Urobuchi, bitterly said. The ties between him and the Tohsaka lineage were deep thanks to the possession of Rin's Magic Crest.

"You're an excellent Archer, but a god you are not, fool." Tokiomi bitterly sniffed. He knew full well what the Second Magic could and could not support. Archer was but an amateur compared to what his lineage's Master could do with it.

"Well, at least we took this joker down." Archer sadly mused. Before them, Kotomine's body cooled. Only faint flickers of prana in the air were all that remained of Assassin.

"...you possess the Second Magic, though." Tokiomi mused. The man glanced at his own Command Spells – Three interlocking rainbow colored gears. "Even if it's a crude facsimile...I may have an idea on how to survive this."

"I guess..." Archer dismissively replied.

Tokiomi sighed. What an uninspired Magus. Well, he had excellent Independent Action and the Second. Maybe he could take him on for the rest of the War. If they hadn't actually already won by default.

That was one massive fireball, after all.

Tokiomi felt pain in the depths of his heart at the thought of Sakura...well, maybe he could do something there. Wasn't like the Matou would survive this level of explosion either. "Archer, **bring my daughter, Sakura, to me!**" One of the gears was consumed. "**Then phase the three of us a side step in reality with the Second!**" The second gear was erased.

Archer's eyes widened in shock as the simple looking sword he had transformed Zelretch into transfigured back into its state. High end knowledge he had never really understood during his lifetime slammed into his as the Grand Holy Grail sought out information directly from one of the four that created it.

"I can do tha-?" The white haired man sounded amazed as his body vanished as the weapon homed in on the Sakura of this world. Data flooded his mind and body as everything pertaining to Sakura Tohsaka – Matou hit him.

Just as the stench of the rancid workshop filled with demonic insect familiars struck him as he appeared. Zouken, who had been in the midst of another of his experiments with Sakura, glanced up in surprise.

His head exploded into a gory mishmash of meat and brain matter as the Heroic Spirit attacked.

Sakura looked up at him with hazy looking eyes as the command caused Archer to swiftly pick up the nude girl. Worms dripped down from her body as they were instantly transported back to Tokiomi.

"What the blazes-?"

"No time." Archer stiffly responded as he grasped Tokiomi's arm. "We will have a talk, though." He swore. "A very long one." All three of them vanished in a haze of prismatic light as the grand wave of fire swept past them.

* * *

><p>Kiritsugu merely remained silent. Hisau Maiya, his assistant for the Fourth Grail War, couldn't tear her gaze away from the raging fire. Between the two, Irisviel softly wept as Saber stiffly stood in front of the three with her arm pointed away from her body.<p>

Avalon, her sheath, brightly flared as it released a streaming cocoon of gold and blue ribbons around the three of them as they sat in the ruins of the hotel that Kiritsugu had been chasing his target, Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi.

It was a small wonder Saber hadn't instantly died when the explosion had gone off. Still, her exposed muscles and bones were being mended instantly by Avalon even as the three of them stood pensively in the firestorm summoned by the death of the demon.

Kiritsugu clenched his fist, which only retained one Command Spell, tightly.

'Whoever did this will pay.' The Master of Einzbern swore. For once, Saber agreed explicitly with such a thought as both of them grew united in the face of such overwhelming devastation.

* * *

><p>From the depths of the earth, the Grand Holy Grail thrummed awake as the influx of souls began to stir Angra Mainyu awake from the depths of the inner core.<p>

* * *

><p><em>Wise Up!<em>

Class – Caster

Master – Uryu Ryunosuke (Deceased)

True Name – Mandy

Sex – Female

Height/Weight – 150 cm/50 kg

Alignment – Neutral Evil

Strength: E

Mana: C (A)

Endurance: E

N. Phantasm: A+

Agility: C

Luck: A

Class Skills:

Independent Action: B

Item Creation: A

Magecraft: C

Personal Skills:

Presence Concealment: C

Charisma: E

Mental Pollution: A

Noble Phantasm:

Pandora's Box

[An Endless Flood of Horrors]

Owner: Mandy

Type: Support

Rank: E~B

Maximum number of targets: 1

A distorted reflection of Pandora Box that Caster once used in life. The demons released from within are able to be modified into magical items that parallel weapons and objects of power that Caster saw in life. Only able to be used in this fashion by Caster due to her Class's ability at Item Creation. Items of note include a skull that is able to summon shades of True Demons, a dimensional scythe with the ability to raise magic ranking by two, and an arm capable of attacking with one's greatest fear.

Various other objects are located within Pandora's Box include...**data corrupted. Signal lost.**

…

Archer looked away from where he was looking at the crystal sword of Zelretch. Tokiomi was looking at him questioningly as he held Sakura in his arms. The young girl was wearing Tokiomi's crimson coat over her nude body. "Her master is dead." He confirmed. "And she's got the ability to craft items."

The short blonde facing them smiled at them hopefully. Her golden hair curled up behind her head like two horns. "So, is it agreed? We'll all team up and fight off the person who caused this disaster?" Next to her side, a vaguely frightened looking woman – who her former Master had apparently saved at the cost of his own life, looked up at them hopefully too.

Archer glanced at Tokiomi questioningly. The man grimaced and nodded. "That's fine, then." He shook his head when Mandy stepped up to him. "Your Mental Pollution trait might affect me through the bond. I want you to pair up with Archer. He's trained as a Magus too, and he possesses Command Spells."

"Ah...well, my title is Caster, but you can call me Mandy, handsome." The blonde smiled up at him charmingly.

'Something...seems off about this whole situation.' Archer sighed as he held up his left arm and began to cast the spell to bind Caster.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Is there such a thing as emogar? *philosoraptor*

Presenting...

…

_World 6, Variant 1, Past – Real Folks Blues_

_…_

Fire baptized his birth into the world. Every night for the rest of his days, he dreamt of two things. One was a beautiful sword that nearly drove him to tears, and the other was a vast sea of flames. Both dreams had sunk so deeply into his very sense of self that they had obliterated any traces of what he might have become if left to his own devices.

Tonight...was one of the dreams of death.

Prayers and curses educated the young Shirou. His dreams began as they always did, with Shirou's broken and charred body stumbling away from his home. Sometimes he could see his mother waving at him through the windows. She most likely was begging for aid as the flames licked her flesh off her bones.

As always, Shirou would stumble away. His eyes shimmered with unshed tears, but he never allowed a single drop to fall.

Shirou's small body stumbled away from his burning home. From his personal hell he entered a more impersonal one. Towering flames raged on either side of his six year old self. Prayers and curses stabbed into his head from the individuals dying within the flames, but Shirou only knew one fundamental truth.

If he stopped for them – he would die.

This truth had been what had granted him the strength to walk away from his mother. It had been what kept him from shedding tears for his father. It would be enough to ignore the plights of the living. It was nearly enough to keep himself from facing the glassy eyes of the dead.

But the truth is a dangerous thing.

Shirou had been granted a boon, and an equal payment had to be made. His body, ruined as it was by the flames and smoke, would not provide the price requested. So the young boy freely sacrificed from his mind and heart. Every step across the broken land consumed a memory. Each stride past the flailing limbs of the people begging for Shirou's aid consumed an emotion.

An automaton of flesh and bone was all that remained when Shirou fell.

* * *

><p>"-Huh!" Shirou squinted at the white light above him.<p>

'So bright...' The boy groaned as he tried to turn. He was surprised to find himself in an unfamiliar bed and in an unfamiliar room. The room's cleanliness and bright white light lulled him into a state of acceptance, though.

'Where am I?' That thought is answered as Shirou could now hear faint moans and murmurs. There are many beds in the large room, and each is filled with a person who was hurt. The young boy could tell that no one ill here.

Each person he was seeing was someone who had been saved...

Shirou relaxed and let his eyes wander.

Outside a nearby window, the bright blue sky was unbelievably beautiful.

* * *

><p>The number of children in the beds around Shirou began to vanish as the days went on. Mostly joyful or tearful reunions would occur in front of him as family reunited. The remaining children would huddle back in their beds with faint looks of disgust or envy when they'd see those reunions, but Shirou remained stoic.<p>

Eventually only sixteen of the children remained. Each of them was given an individual room at this point.

Shirou thought the adults looked vaguely guilty beneath their faces. Whenever they thought he was watching them, they donned plastic happiness over their expressions like a false mask.

The boy could only assume that the adults were trying to slowly work the thought in the children's heads that...

They'd be alone from now on.

Shirou took another sip of his broth through the straw he had been given for his juice. The redhaired boy left the noodles and juice alone as he simply continued to stare at nothing in particular. 'I wonder if they'll tell the others?' A sensation - like pins and needles - danced along his spine at the thought. Shirou shifted uncomfortably beneath his blankets in his clean room. 'We're all...alone now.' Guilt filled his heart.

The image of his mother wailed as she burned alive. She thrashed about in front of the window like an agitated snake before his eyes. Shirou's body thrummed as he jerked backwards, knee arcing up and smashing the bottom of the elevated table over his bed, sending the tray of food on it down on him.

The clattering sound of dishes echoed in the room along with his pained yelp as burning broth soaked him before the tray bounced off him and fell to the ground.

"You alright there?"

Shirou nearly jumped out of his skin. A scruffy looking brown haired man in a well beaten brown coat had somehow snuck into the room along with an amused looking physician. The doctor offered Shirou a faint smile before he picked up the medical chart at the foot of the bed.

The boy sighed at the wet gown clinging to his legs. He peeled the material off and shifted it a bit. The skin beneath Shirou's gown was only slightly pink from the heat of the broth.

"I'm okay." Shirou awkwardly replied.

The coated man nodded and moved out of the doctor's way. The physician approached the boy, and with a soft click of his tongue, he helped Shirou in peeling the stained blankets off the bed. The scruffy coated man helped by picking up the dropped dishes on the ground.

"It's still amazing how you bounce back so easily from things." The doctor mused with a shake of his head. Those words seemingly caused the coated man's face to alight with a hint of amusement.

The coated man moved closer to the bed and, with permission from the doctor, helped him and the Shirou in getting the mess cleaned up.

Shirou merely sat back against his bed in embarrassment once he had given what little aid he could. The doctor placed everything into a plastic pan for his medicine and gave the scruffy man a nod before carrying the pan out.

"I'll be back in a moment." The physician announced as he gave Shirou an encouraging smile before heading out of the room.

Shirou gave the remaining man a curious look.

"My name is Kiritsugu Emiya." The tired looking man announced.

"Uhm...my name is Shirou..." The redhead softly trailed off. Shirou grimaced and answered Kiritsugu's look of curiosity with a lost look. "...sorry, that's all I know." He glanced down at his hands, which were twiddling nervously over his lap.

Kiritsugu's expectant look faded into a neutral one. "No. I apologize." He shook his head, and offered Shirou a wan smile. "Still, that makes it more important that we talk now." Kiritsugu concluded authoratively.

"What do you mean?" Shirou blinked. "...do you know who I am?" He hopefully wondered. Somehow he got the impression this man wasn't a relative. He hadn't acted like any of the other people had when they came to retrieve some of the others Shirou had stayed with.

"Sorry, but no."

"-oh."

Kiritsugu lightly scratched at the stubble on his cheeks and chin as he considered his next words. "Well...let me be blunt. Would you like to be adopted by me? Or would you like to go to the Orphanage with the other children that remain?" The man's words made Shirou stare at the older man in shock.

"...What?"

'Is this how this is supposed to go?' Shirou boggled at Kiritsugu's offer.

Kiritsugu paused for a moment. He seemingly realized the way his tone came off, and he quickly backpedaled. Kiritsugu shook his head from side to side as he raised his hands in an oddly defensive looking posture.

"Well...no, that's not how I meant it." Kiritsugu looked like he had bitten into a lemon. "I mean to say...uhm...I would really like to adopt you." He awkwardly shuffled his feet. Kiritsugu looked a bit dopey in the boy's eyes as he reached behind the back of his head and scratched at his short hair. "...if you don't mind, of course."

Shirou was conflicted. The man **really** didn't look very reliable. Like at all.

But he had chosen Shirou.

Besides, Kiritsugu looked pretty cool, in his own sloppy way, and Shirou's young heart somehow really admired that.

"...alright." Shirou's single word caused Kiritsugu's face to light up like Christmas came early. The redhead felt a warm sensation radiate through his chest in reaction to the older man's gentle smile. "Ah...can I call you dad?" Shirou tentatively wondered.

"Of course!" Kiritsugu grinned beatifically. Shirou's new father suddenly snapped his fingers, causing the boy to jump in bed slightly. "Oh! Before we get too far, I need to tell you something." His face was solemn. "I'm a sorcerer." That dopey look crossed Kiritsugu's face. "Keep it a secret, okay?" He held up a tiny pebble. On its surface, a glowing symbol was carved. Oddly enough, some faint purple light was glowing on the doorknob of Shirou's hospital room too.

"...what?"

Shirou Emiya would learn to take his new father's habit of bluntness in stride. Eventually.

* * *

><p><em>World 6, Variant 1, Future<em>

_…_

Shirou Emiya slowly opened his eyes as he came out of his dream. The tall, dark skinned man with snow white hair and gray eyes wore a jet black set of armor and dark pants. Several parts of his outfit were torn – exposing swaths of bandages beneath, which were stained with blood at the moment.

The man's right eye was swollen and purple, but that didn't keep his other eye from taking in his surroundings with casual disregard. The execution site he woke up at would be the last thing he would ever see.

'May as well stop and smell the roses.'

Shirou stood upon a a crude wooden platform. It was raised high above a slowly growing crowd of nearly a hundred people in total. The wooden platform that he was going to be executed on today was in a ruined shopping plaza. A quick pass of the blasted out buildings showed no sign of movement or people within the few buildings that were still holding together.

Shirou relax. He couldn't feel any other presences besides that of the group that had now gathered. He moved on to study the people themselves. Several of them had swapped their frayed and patchwork clothing with outfits stripped away from the enemy nomads that had attacked. Shirou nodded to himself approvingly as he saw the leather armor and bits and pieces of metal and ceramic strapped onto the dozen fighters.

The crowd noted his approval. The majority of them frowned at him or shifted their weaponry – mainly knives and melee weapons, with a few positively ancient pieces of firearms from the before the bombings – threateningly in his direction. Some of the people that Shirou had the pleasure of working with gave him tired nods of acknowledgment.

"So, will you remain quiet until the end, Emiya?" A voice rang out over the din of the crowd. The group as a whole seemingly shifted tone at the arrival of a gray haired man. The group took on various expressions of contempt towards Shirou as a fifty year old man in a weathered, but still serviceable looking, powder blue suit spoke up. "We have evidence that you were conspiring with those devils across the valley. Just tell us what we need to know and we'll let you go." He finished at the same time he arrived at the wooden platform.

"They didn't do it." Shirou immediately tried to head off that line of thought. The last thing he wanted to do was make tension flare up in the valley after he died.

"The nomads couldn't have of gotten a hold of that bio-weapon without their help!" The politician shouted, nearly frothing at the mouth. His impassioned retort caused the crowd around him to grow more heated.

"You know as well as I do what they possess and don't possess." Shirou replied with a touch of heat in his own tone now. "You've confiscated my journals. They don't have any weapons at all!" The white haired man lightly bit his lip to keep from continuing in his tirade about the other community still having their own supplies that he had brought in.

Best not remind them of the real reason they were so desperate.

Shirou glanced up at the pitch red skies. Thick, jet black clouds of ash dotted the heavens. The chemicals within the noxious clouds had ravaged the community in front of him. They would all have died had he not intervened.

'Is this fine?' The voice of Rin Tohsaka buzzed in the back of his head. Her voice had been plaguing him for the last few years now. Shirou would have just passed it off as a charming bit of insanity, but she **knew** things. Oftentimes the voice of his old high school idol would tell him of things that lay ahead on his constant trips through the blasted wastelands.

Sometimes she answered if Shirou pressed her on details. He was pretty sure that bouts of insanity didn't respond with tangible bits of information. Like a dam, it seemed that Shirou's acknowledgment of the voice had granted it more power, and he was now constantly hounded. The white haired man had worried what it said about him that the woman's voice sounded more like her teenage self, though.

'You wished for me to give you the power to save them, but now you'll die at their hands.' Rin continued once he didn't reply. Much like the real Tohsaka, she sounded vaguely peeved whenever he took too long to talk to her. 'You're stupid, Emiya-kun.'

It was enough to make a grown man chuckle.

Shirou was still highly amused that The World acted so personable with him. 'That's fine.' He thought as he gazed at the crowd with an even gaze. The rickety old platform below his feet groaned as he shifted in place. An old fashioned noose drew tight against the skin of his neck with his motion. 'They don't know better. I showed off my power to save them, so they had every excuse to think I'm related to this.'

"Do you have any last words?"

Shirou was drawn out of his daze by the words of the politician.

'Now will you act?' Rin's voice was lightly curious. 'I have granted you more than enough power to survive this.' She paused. '...you could just break out.'

'No. It's fine.' Shirou smiled. The white haired man shifted in place a bit. 'Besides, you came after me for a reason, right?' He closed his eyes silently. 'This is just going to be an early start on my new mission.'

'...yes. Your abilities are unique. With your skill we will save mankind countless times over.' Rin promised. Relief flooded Shirou. With that assurance, the white haired magus opened his mouth to speak.

"...all of you, try to move to the south during the night. The enemy forces will not be able to follow you if you take the mountain path at this time of the year." Shirou freely offered the group his last words.

Murmurs of disbelief went up amongst the crowd. A few people glanced away guiltily. The politician scowled.

'I hope they take my advice...' Shirou thought.

'You ...confuse me.' Rin quietly admitted.

'Well, we'll always have eternity.'

"Goodbye, Emiya." The politician gestured. Shirou felt the platform beneath his feet shift and collapse...

* * *

><p><em>World 2, Variant 1, Past – You're Gonna Carry That Weight<em>

_…_

Shirou found himself standing in the center of a dim living room when he next opened his eyes. He found himself dressed in his full set of black armor and red holy mantle. Both pieces of armor were fully repaired. The room he was standing in had expensive and western looking furniture surrounding Shirou.

"Ngh..." The white haired man raised his hands to his aching head. Shirou's brief moment of confusion transitioning between execution site and this mansion mixed with the increasingly painful headache he was suffering.

The white haired man clutched at his head for a few moments, but quickly realized something. His magic circuits were active and he was receiving a great amount of mana from his surroundings. With the frightening rush of power came knowledge as well. Yet the information was things that he already knew. Social customs and language; things he had known since he had been a boy.

The most important things were the geographical information and temporal location, though.

'Why am I in the past?' The answer automatically came to Shirou. After his death, he had been summoned to compete in a War after he had died for an item called the Holy Grail. The man had been pulled back in time and space from the Throne of Heroes...

"I'm...a hero?" Data flooded his mind as he was given all the information on the role he was playing in this contest. Shirou would take on the mantle of Archer due to his abilities in life, which had been supplemented by his pact with Alaya.

'I...made it, father...' Shirou breathed in wonder. His hands trembled slightly as Shirou's gray eyes widened. 'I'm a Hero of Justice. I did it!' The white haired man felt something deep in his heart twitch in joy. He never felt as deep a connection to his father than he did at this exact moment.

'I...I need to do my best so my Master can win!' Shirou's eyes widened as he got the information from the Holy Grail on who his Master was going to be. 'Rin Tohsaka! Well, I'll help her win, then!' He nearly laughed through the slight burning sensation as the flow of mana tapered off as his new body's odic reserves were filled to their limit.

Shirou decided to check on one last thing before he went to greet his Master. Best make sure that his abilities weren't changed in the afterlife because of his deal with Alaya. So Shirou investigated his own Heroic Legend with a merry expression on his face.

The results that the Holy Grail provided...confused him.

'I...don't have one?' Shirou felt vaguely confused, but he saw that he was in the Throne of Heroes. A few prods with his mind explained that he was inside the Throne because of the deal itself, and not because of his deeds after dealing with Alaya.

Well, that made sense. He had been working after that point with her power. Shirou instead chose to have the Holy Grail show him if he had learned any new skills. Or refined his pre-existing ones with the new level of powers he possessed. That'd come in handy for this new War...

Thousands of images of himself mechanically overloading the swords and Noble Phantasms he was capable of creating hit him simultaneously. Shirou staggered back as he let out a gasp as two constants registered amongst all of those images that were appearing in his mind; the cold, blank expression on his face and that his swords were always turned in the direction of other humans.

'That...what's going on?' Shirou's expression – which had been joyous up until now, fell heavily. The Grail helpfully provided more images of his weapons raining cool and efficient death. While he could understand and even approve of his other self's usage of the tactics shown in all the encounters he saw; the disturbing lack of serenity kept hammering the same thought over and over in the back of Shirou's mind.

This...is wrong.

The automaton that was moving about with Shirou's face didn't ever break his steady pace. Maddened Magi fell as easily as young children. No blood was different once it coated the flashing swords created by the tanned man marching through countless battlefields. Shirou felt sick to his stomach every time a person begged for their lives on the rare occasions that his doppelganger dropped out of the invisible state he roved in normally.

Shirou grew dismayed with each village and town that were wiped from the face of the earth.

Dozens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands – it didn't matter. They all met their end at Shirou's hand.

'You...lied to me.' His fists trembled at his sides – nails digging bleeding gouges from the soft flesh of his palms.

There were no smiling faces.

'YOU LIED TO ME, ALAYA!' Rage surged to life within Archer's very soul. The thought that he had been deceived because of Rin's voice burned at every fiber of his being.

Shirou felt his magic circuits flare to life as he allowed his body, granted to him by the Holy Grail, to hit its peak speed and strength. His vision turned red and he blurred as he descended on the living room like a tornado. At one point he was sure that he had created a sword to annihilate part of the roof as well, but he was too far gone to care as he raged in a combination of grief and shame.

By the time the red haze cleared Shirou's eyes, he had two goals in mind. The first was to do everything in his power from alienating his Master.

"What's going on up there?" Rin's voice shrieked faintly up to him.

Shirou swiftly drapped his body across the ruined couches that he had shattered in his berserker rage. His expression smoothed out as he calmly and confidently faced the rampaging brunette that appeared within his vision.

The second was to stop this from happening. By any means necessary.

But for now, Shirou would meet his Master. It had been so long since he had seen a familiar face...

It was time to don the title of Archer for the rest of this War.

* * *

><p>Archer's overcompensation in acting cool and level headed after his firestorm of rage had led him into being excessively beligerent against Rin. The discovery of her short trigger, and her own fit of anger that disturbed him, simultaneously amused him and annoyed him after the fact.<p>

Especially since she had wasted a Command Spell to force him into obedience. The command was too general to really force him to do anything, but it would weaken him enough that it might make all the difference between victory and defeat.

Especially in this War, since Archer's target, the young Shirou Emiya, would be active in the Holy Grail War as the Master of the second strongest Heroic Spirit in play. The one known as Saber - Arturia Pendragon.

'Still...Rin had a different Servant last time...could it be useless to do this?' Archer worried as he finished the last of his cleaning. The older Shirou allowed his body to dematerialize as he took a sidestep in reality. Once he was out of phase with the rest of the world, Archer began to leisurely move through the walls and furniture. No sign of his presence could be felt as he left the Tohsaka Mansion.

He would go ahead and check the young Shirou's home from afar tonight. While it had been a late night for his Master, he could at least try and use his enhanced vision to spy on himself from afar. If only to settle his own unease about the plan.

The skylines of Fuyuki raced past Archer as he used his supernatural abilities. The Heroic Spirit's legs blurred as he moved at a respectable pace for one of the Servants. He quickly arrived in front of his former home before twenty minutes passed. Silence and darkness clung to the young Shirou's home, but something immediately struck him as off with the air around the building.

'I need more space.' Archer turned and leapt to higher ground. The Servant turned and inspected the Emiya compound once he had secured a position. His jaw went slack as he stared at the inside of the complex. Archer's enhanced vision easily cleaved through the darkness of the night, showing several new plants that weren't there before. His magical senses also showed that the boundary field around the Emiya home was at full strength.

What was going on?

Archer decided to remain at his perch this night. He knew that it'd be a tight squeeze in terms of time, but he was pretty sure that he could get back to Rin's mansion. His younger self should be getting up within another three hours to get ready for Sakura. He'd just make his confirmation then and there.

From there, he'd have to think about what he was going to do next. His plan had already begun with the lie he had given Rin. Archer couldn't afford to let her know that he was from the future until he took advantage of his foreknowledge to its fullest.

Archer loathed the thoughts, but the memories that he had freshly gained rolled around in the back of his mind like a rancid pond of water. But like a boy with a fresh scab, the tanned man couldn't let his memories go. Archer closed his eyes and took deep breaths as he sank into the endless memories he had gained from the Holy Grail.

For the next few hours, Archer silently trembled on his rooftop perch.

* * *

><p>The sun was slowly rising in the horizon.<p>

Confusion dominated Archer's senses as he vapidly stared at the sight before him. His old teacher, big sister, and guardian Taiga Fujimura was having breakfast. This wasn't anything special for Archer since she always used to come home to eat with him as well, but the woman was dressed in a thick robe.

One that matched with the robe that Kiritsugu Emiya was wearing. Archer felt his body betray him again as he leaned forwards, reinforcing his eyes further as he gazed upon his father with wonder in his eyes. The man looked slightly more aged in the face – but otherwise as fit as ever. Archer almost reached a hand towards Kiritsugu, but he was brought out of his daze when Kiritsugu began to laugh.

Archer glanced away from Kiritsugu to see what had drawn his attention. A teenaged albino girl with beautiful silver hair deliberately made another face at his father.

It reminded him of all the silly faces Taiga used to make for him.

A thrill of shock went through Archer as several of the older girl's features suddenly struck him as she turned with a look of curiosity towards the rooftop he was standing on. The white haired man instinctively dove onto his belly as he saw a pair of scarlet eyes move past where he had been crouching.

'...Ilya?' Archer's heart skipped a few beats as he lightly pressed himself upwards a bit. It was just enough for him to see that Kiritsugu had joined his daughter in gazing at his direction. Something deep within Archer told him that he had to retreat now. Following his gut feeling, the Heroic Spirit quickly crawled away before he could draw more attention.

But...where was the younger Shirou?

* * *

><p>For the rest of the morning, Archer existed in a dazed state. He silently followed behind Rin like the ghost he now was. Or sort of was. He had never really gotten too much into theory with his father. This sort of made determining his exact nature confusing, but Archer would consider existential questions later.<p>

Perhaps after creating an electric guitar through tracing. Archer was pretty sure he could compete with any teen heartthrob in suicidal angst now. He glanced down at his outfit.

'And I have an outfit to match.' The white haired man let out a tiny sigh. Rin's attention was drawn to Archer at that, and the man merely offered her a tiny smirk and shake of his head. The twin tailed girl rolled her eyes, but he could see a faint hint of worry beneath the annoyance.

The Heroic Spirit found himself feeling ridiculously grateful for that tiny gesture.

Rin, possibly feeling the sincerity in Archer's new smile, merely offered him a nod. The familiar gesture nearly made the Heroic Spirit break out in laughter, but he didn't want to get her in a bad mood so soon after they had just made up. Archer merely kept his lips shut as they entered the school building.

Both of them immediately froze stiff as a sticky netting of invisible liquid clung to them the second they stepped past the school boundary and into the campus proper. Archer's nose twitched as a honeyed and coppery smelling scent assaulted his nostrils.

'Rider...' Archer narrowed his eyes. The man turned towards his Master; the brunette glanced at him with a look of intense but controlled fury in her turquoise eyes.

"Time for a snake hunt." The tanned Heroic Spirit spoke up.

Rin firmly nodded. "Let's go, Archer."

* * *

><p>So stupid...<p>

Archer had been so stupid. Enough that he nearly cried in self-disgust. The white haired man was pinned down at the end of a hallway beneath rubble from the school roof. Fortunately he had managed to somehow dodge Rider's Bellerophon rush, sparing his head and heart from annihilation, but his limbs and majority of his body was useless.

With the strange absence of his younger self, Archer and Rin had to rely on Archer's senses to track down and remove the sigils to the Blood Fort Andromeda that Rider would unleash on the school. The barrier's removal was their highest priority due to the effect it would have in melting everyone within the school into blood and prana for Rider to consume. Unfortunately, Archer's senses had been damaged a long time ago in the reinforcement accident that had bulked up his body muscles and burnt several of his circuits. The deal with Alaya hadn't been to reverse his damage, so his ability to smell magic had remained duller than his younger self.

This had kept them from actively participating in the Holy Grail War...and most likely brought everything to the point it was at right now.

A few pieces of timber fell off from on top of Archer. They revealed Sakura, Rider, and Shinji standing tall in the blood red haze of the Bloodfort. Sakura was breathing heavily, and a wild light was in the depths of her eyes as she glanced between him and her own Servant. The golden bridle of Bellerophon was firmly in her right hand. The Noble Phantasm was projecting two shining threads of gold into the depths of the shadowy beast Rider had turned into.

Shinji was focusing all his attention on Rin, who had a pallid expression on her face and was freely weeping. While Shinji had a knife on her and was firmly gripping onto her with his free hand, his words were what had reduced her to such a vulnerable state.

Archer felt hate boil within him at the sight of nonchalant teenager. Yet his hand was stayed. A monstrous beast, composed of shadowy substance and gleaming purple eyes held the Heroic Spirit in its thrall. The monster that Rider had become.

Rider swayed to its full size. The form that Rider had turned into was more than ten feet tall, and the additional limbs it had gained put its size even higher. The swaying pitch black tentacles moved to and fro, their shadowy tips composed of hissing snakes. Wherever they touched instantly corroded like acid had been used to destroy the affected area. It began to slide towards Archer, and he couldn't do anything with those eyes focused on him.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." Sakura softly repeated. With each of the monstrous beast's motions towards Archer, she twitched and silently shed tears. Black pulses of energy pulsed back along the golden reigns into her body occasionally.

"A-archer!" Rin shrieked. Shinji quietly pressed the knife tighter against her jugular, looking faintly disgusted with his own actions.

"Get the hell away from him!" A new voice roared. One that was immediately recognizable. A young boy with short red hair and fiery sherry eyes leapt in between Archer and Rider. In his arms, he awkwardly held a wall mirror. It was slightly more than half his height and about a quarter his side in width, but it did its job.

"Shirou!" Rin let out a cry of shock.

Rider immediately let out a wail of agony once she caught her own reflection in the mirror. She attempted to bring up her arms to cover her shadowed face, but her limbs were rapidly stiffening and slowing. The redhead was holding it up like a shield in front of himself and Archer. The white haired man felt feeling begin to return to his body, but he saw that Shinji was moving to neutralize Rin.

Before a golf club came swinging for the back of Shinji's head, violently swung by a furious looking Taiga Fujimura. Archer's eyes widened as Shinji let out a pained gurgle before collapsing to the ground. Sakura let out a shriek as she leapt away from Taiga. In Archer's opinion, Taiga looked like she wanted to keep attacking the fallen boy, but somehow Taiga held herself back.

Sakura gazed at her wailing Servant and then at her fallen brother for a few moments of indecision. She quickly shook herself out as she noticed that Rin was marching towards her. Her plum eyes briefly watered, but her expression smoothed out.

"R-rider! Get us out of here!" A blaze of light erupted out of the back of Sakura's hand as she and her Servant vanished in bursts of shadow.

"S-sakura!" Rin collapsed to her knees.

Both Shirou and Taiga had uncomfortable looking expression on their faces, but they set them aside as the red mist in the air completely vanished. The older woman moved to kneel besides Rin, who was staring brokenly at the spot Sakura had been standing on.

Shirou carefully set down the mirror he had been holding before he turned to face Archer. He offered the white haired man a kind smile as he began moving the rubble off the baffled Heroic Spirit.

"I'll get you out soon..."

"What are you...?" Archer blurted.

Shirou awkwardly chuckled. "Sorry, but we don't have much time." His expression firmed as he gazed down at Archer. "We need your help. Otherwise that thing with Sakura is going to devour everything in existence. We've seen it eat three gods already." By this point, the odic energy within the Heroic Spirit's system had recovered enough of his body that Archer just finished crawling the rest of the way out.

"That's..." Archer hoped he didn't sound completely confounded.

Shirou looked sympathetic. "I'm Shirou Urobuchi. Can I trust you?" He offered his hand to Archer with an intensely hopeful look on his face.

Archer wondered if he was cursed to lead a life where he was led by the nose by people who were too blunt for their own good.


	6. Chapter 6

…

_World 2, Variant -, Past – Tohno Family Takeover Plan_

…

Shiki Tohno waited for his driver to open the door for him in the back of his limo. "Thank you." The white haired pre-teen politely murmured to the capped man. He gave a disinterested nod to the driver's placid reply. Shiki stepped out of his car and started towards the front door of his home.

In his left hand, the child carried a manilla folder stuffed with paperwork, and his right hand idly loosened the tie around his neck. It tightly clasped around the collar of his dress shirt, but a bit of fiddling loosened it up.

The front door swung open to reveal a young girl with short red hair and dim jade eyes standing at attention. She stared at Shiki's leisurely approach silently for a few moments.

"Welcome home, Tohno-sama." Hisui coolly replied. The redhead bore a series of light scars across the majority of her face. Their splotchy marks stood out in what was otherwise a healthy looking complexion. She also was noticeably favoring one leg over the other.

'Ah, winter is setting in.' The twelve year old thought a bit disappointedly. Pity he had to give into his own animal urges back when he took over this body in its youth.

"Good afternoon, Hisui." The pre-teen greeted with a hint of cheer in his tone. Shiki strutted past the maid, and Hisui silently closed the door behind him. She moved to flank the white haired teenager. "Has Akiha arrived home yet?" He wondered.

"No, sir." Hisui answered. She paused for a few moments as they passed a few members of the staff and an occasional branch member of the family. Almost all of them gave Shiki respectful nods. The ones that didn't were carefully noted down by the white haired boy.

"Shiki-chan!" A voice called out behind both Hisui and Shiki, causing them both to halt in place. Another girl, the twin to the one walking behind Shiki, energetically waved – sending the sleeves of her brown kimono flapping about as she approached the two of them.

Yet her amber eyes were even duller than Hisui's were.

"Kohaku."

The red head gave him an all too wide smile, like if she were attempting to try something on that didn't quite fit. "I wanted to see you again. Why didn't you come say Hi earlier?" Kohaku nervously wondered. It made Shiki mentally roll his eyes.

"Hisui and I are going to see father." Shiki used the one excuse which would cause Kohaku to instantly give up. Kohaku's expression went slack as she glanced fearfully over at Hisui. "She will remain outside of the hall for the period of discussion." Shiki added

Kohaku gave a shaky nod. "A-alright, then. I-I'm leaving her to your care, then." She gave Hisui a half-hearted smile. One that was returned with a mere nod from Hisui. Kohaku's lips curled downwards ever so slightly as she turned and began shuffling away.

"Sisters shouldn't fight." Shiki idly spoke up.

Hisui snorted, but remained quiet.

'He doesn't have to deal with someone trying to mock you.' Hisui thought to herself. She ignored the intense gaze burning in between her shoulders.

* * *

><p>'Why?'<p>

Kohaku watched from afar, having ducked behind one of the halls. Her head peeked around it to look at Shiki and Hisui going up the stairs to...his room.

'What did I do to make you so angry?' Kohaku desperately thought to her twin. She had begun changing herself into a doll for the sake of her sister. She had nearly made the complete transition to endure her detestable duties in Makihisa's bedroom.

Then Hisui had been hurt.

Both of the Tohno siblings had persuaded their father to allow her to return to the mansion staff – to better care for her Hisui and to take over the jade eyed girl's duties. It had been an impossible transition, but Kohaku was more than capable as an actress.

More than enough to fool even herself.

'Why do you think I'm mocking you?' Kohaku gripped at the walls. 'Can't you see I just want...I just want to walk besides you?'

So she had taken on Hisui's old attitudes and habits. Kohaku would remake herself in the image of her Hisui during the day, and then Makihisa's doll at night.

'I'm so sorry I hurt you...'

* * *

><p>"Father, I have the quarterly reports." Shiki didn't even wait for his father's permission to enter. Makihisa Tohno gave him a sneer from where he was looking over several reports at his desk. Shiki pretended to ignore the look as he walked up to the desk and set it down.<p>

"What's the real reason you're here?" The gaunt, kimono clad man gazed past Shiki's shoulder with an icy look. Moments later, the door was softly shut as Hisui moved to stand outside of the patriarch's bedroom.

"Our cousins wish to find out why you've suddenly decided to declare a feud on the Fujimura family of Fuyuki."

Makihisa scoffed at Shiki. The white haired pre-teen kept a placid smile on his face.

"Akiha is a disappointment. She has such thick blood, but she hasn't made the strides you have."

'Well, that would be because she doesn't supplement her abilities with magecraft, father.' Shiki amusedly thought to himself.

"And you...you're a disappointment in an entirely different area." Makihisa spoke his mind. His eyes narrowed as he gazed at Shiki with a growing amount of hatred. "You don't care about this family one bit. You're just a hateful little leech that's always experimenting down in the basements like a worm. The branch families only dare to question my motives because you do not stand by my side."

"Ah... but father, have I not kept my word about your indiscretions?" Makihisa's glare sharpened several levels, but Shiki shook his head. He thumbed back behind him at the door. "She won't hear. It's warded."

"Haa...this is what troubles me." Makihisa murmured. "I demand a worthy heir. They refused to work with me...the compatible woman eloped to another." He snarled, eyes flashing like a wild beast.

Shiki wondered if his own eyes had been like that when he was a child. He hoped not. Shiki prided himself on being at least a little bit more civilized than that.

"Well, I can see that we won't be able to have a civilized conversation. Should I go ahead and look the other way while you get your fix?"

Makihisa crushed one of the pieces of paper on his desk. His eyes darkened as he visibly trembled behind his desk. "Do not belittle me, boy! Those twins are the only things that can keep our bloodline under control."

"Mmm...if you say so." Shiki shrugged and walked away. He could feel killing intent leak out from where his father remained sitting but didn't react at it at all. "Dinner will be at eight. Please attend. I'd like for us to stand...together when our cousins arrive tonight."

Hisui glanced at Shiki in alarm as he exited the room. The noises of furniture being crushed and flung about briefly lingered in the hall before Shiki closed the door behind him.

"Be a dear and go help the kitchen staff, Hisui." Shiki briefly ordered the jade eyed girl before he headed out to the foyer. "I'll be down in the basement with your sister. I have some garbage I need to take out with her help."

Time to find Kohaku and finish this farce.

* * *

><p>Kohaku glanced behind her back once. While it was unneeded – the powerful barrier surrounding this part of the mansion tended to make people forget there was even a basement, it was always best to be sure.<p>

Confirming no one was behind her, she reached for the doorknob of the door heading to the basement. A glowing series of mathematical formula, only tangible to those who possessed the gift for magecraft, appeared along the center of the door and spread out in geometric shapes.

The maid felt a jolt of energy run through her body as it confirmed she was alone.

The door's lock unlatched as it allowed Kohaku to descend to the basement.

A workshop is as unique to a magus as their initial trigger phrase. Depending on the person's area of study, you could find anything down in the sprawling areas. At least, that's what Kohaku had been told once she started coming down here at Shiki's behest.

It was easy to believe in the supernatural when one was as steeped in it as Kohaku herself was.

The young girl was privately a bit intrigued with all the chemicals along the tables she passed. She had been getting training from a doctor by the name of Jinan Sougen for a while, but after she had been separated from Makihisa, her training had been terminated. Still, the curiosity of how the chemicals could be used was still in the back of her mind along with her training.

Kohaku passed a diagram of the human body on a large white board lingering in front of one of the cells in the basement. She briefly paused as she observed the detailed sketch. Kohaku's faintly nodded to herself as she confirmed everything with what her former sensei had taught her.

"Glad you approve."

The redhead nearly leapt out of her skin as Shiki seemingly appeared out of the shadows next to her. Kohaku let out a yelp of dismay as her tools slipped from her hands. Her broom and dustpan fell from her hands, causing a loud clatter that was disturbingly loud in the silent room.

"Shiki-chan, you scared me..." Kohaku muttered. She recalled a memory of Hisui to reference as she pouted at the white haired boy. He merely smiled at her in return as she dipped down to pick up the fallen cleaning supplies.

But before she could do anything else, Shiki's hands flashed out and plucked one of the locks of hair from her head.

Kohaku yelped. Her hands slapped down over her head protectively, and she gazed upwards at Shiki in exaggerated dismay. Shiki merely waved a hand for her to rise. Kohaku, curious despite herself, did so as she rose with her tools.

"What are you doing, Shiki-chan?"

Shiki let out a chuckle. "I think it's about time that we take care of the situation here at home." The white haired boy replied. Kohaku's heart skipped a beat as he gestured for her to follow him deeper into the workshop.

Kohaku kept an eye on his left hand, which was tightly clutched into a fist around the lock of her hair. "A-are you really going to do it?" She whispered. Shiki silently replied with a nod as both children made their way towards the center of the room.

The area had been cleared up by Shiki, and even the cement over the ground had been torn up into a gradual incline down towards soft soil. Several bronze, silver, and gold rings with more of those mathematical formulas carved into them were arranged along the pit at set points.

A towering pillar of earth with bone like protrusions stuck out of the pit. Several steel cables ran from them to the ground at various points to hold it down.

Shiki held up his hand and gently flew Kohaku's lock of hair towards the pillar. The tiny red strand fluttered directly into the surface of the pillar, vanishing once it touched the soft earth. Kohaku gave the boy a strange look, but he merely smiled.

"The Tohno bloodline is mighty." Shiki Tohno explained. "But it has its weaknesses." He continued as he began to walk around along the edge of the pit. As he did so, the bands within the pit began to light up. "I guess it makes sense – our ancestors consorted with Demons. We become more warped depending on our ability to warp reality..."

"Shiki-chan?"

"Makihisa's senses are dulled." Shiki replied. A bulge began to form from within the center of the pillar. "He hasn't been with you in a while thanks to our plan."

Kohaku slowly nodded. Her eyes glanced over at the soil, which began to crumble away as a form began to dig itself out from within. The head of a large cat, with slitted amber eyes, focused on Kohaku.

It let out an echoing cry of hunger. Its form burst out from within the pillar of soil and lighted upon the ground. Prana surged outwards from its frame in the form of a blue mist, concealing its form for a few moments. The cloud began to billow outwards in an ever expanding radius.

"It's time to strike." Shiki declared. An identical copy of Kohaku, clothed in the same brown kimono that the human girl was wearing, stepped out of the cloud of mist. She toothily grinned up at the two and gave the two a polite bow.

* * *

><p>It was only seven days, but they taught twelve year old Kohaku something valuable.<p>

All that remained were Makihisa's last will and testament. Along with a desire for her own power.

Shiki Tohno, as heir, would rise as head of the family. The bloody death of Makihisa Tohno was found no traces of the murderer, but in the cutthroat Tohno family, all that mattered were results. The elder Tohno had fallen in their eyes as madness slowly overtook him in recent years.

Kohaku had been surrounded by the kitchen staff when her tormentor had died an agonizing death at the hands of the nekomata. Nothing could be said about the redhead since she was around so many cousins of the family, but she was privately worried.

What if they came after Hisui?

Kohaku felt like she had been forsaken by her blood, but that didn't mean she would ever turn her back on her kin. Shiki Tohno had taught her that one could detest or be detested by one's kin, and still profit from the blood flowing in their veins.

So for now, she would look into her bloodline, and perform her own research. For her Hisui.

Kohaku would do just fine by herself.

...

She was a very good actress, after all.

...

Was this what it meant to be more adult?


	7. Chapter 7

…

_World 2, Variant -, Future – Extra: Bring My Red Mantle_

…

"It hurts..."

My whimper echoes in the cavernous chamber. The uncaring corpses of my classmates litter the ground all around me as the monstrosity before me finishes off the gun metal gray humanoid doll that had been granted to me once I became 'aware'.

Static is creeping in from the edges of my vision. The floor beneath me, which I'm desperately grasping onto like a safety blanket with bloody hands, is breaking apart into a series of zeros and ones.

Am...am I going to die?

N-no! I can't die here! I've only just realized that there's something ...more to life than this endless loop of school!

Almost in response to my thoughts, my murderer contemptuously tosses aside my guardian and begins to stalk up to me. Its arms, having taken on the form of spiked hammers to crush the doll, were still stained with my blood.

"H-help..." My voice croaks as my body writhes uselessly. I tremble as my attacker raises one of its hammer arms up, intending to bring it down with enough force to crush my head like a rotten melon.

_!

"_Trace on._"

A sharp twang rang out. Instantly a chunk of the doll golem attacking me simply ceases to exist. An intense wind follows, knocking the doll away from me. The damaged creature bounces across a sea of broken bodies and shattered dolls. The screech of metal and squish of pulped and ruined flesh fills me with nausea, but I manage to hold it in.

A set of boots step into my line of sight.

"Master..." The man's husky voice draws my attention upwards. My eyes widen and a flush of embarrassment manages to make its way to my face in spite of my situation as I take in the form fitting leather pants - how can he even squeeze into such tight things? - and black leather armor my rescuer wore. A crimson red mantle tightly clenched around his broad shoulders and trailed down to mid thigh.

His white hair and gray eyes, set in a tanned face, warmly smiles at me.

"I have come at your call." With those words, the grievous injuries I had been suffering miraculously began to fade away. Like someone putting a film into rewind, my life threatening wounds simply vanished. With the tall man's help, I'm able to get to my feet - and that's when I notice the bow in his other hand. My eyes quickly glance over in the direction of the doll, who had a hole about the size of my head punched into its torso.

"How...?" Before I can ask why a bow and arrow had been able to pierce through thick steel, he merely holds a hand up.

"My name is..."

_**Legendary Soul: Archer**__ has been summoned successfully. Participant is formally acknowledged by the System. Welcome to .PH_ - _Model TA_, _Version 3.0_.

I wince as the alien voice again violates my thoughts. Such words had been nothing but a lulling buzz. They had kept me complacent for an eternity.

I hated this world.

However, to my great surprise, Archer merely sadly chuckled.

"No...that title should have gone to another man instead of me..."

I open my mouth to question the man, but -to my horror- I see that the doll has been restored back to its original form. Its arms reshape themselves before my eyes to a pair of sharp blades.

"A-archer..." I hate myself for trembling, but I can't resist backing up behind my Archer. The man glances down at me and offers me a faint smile of assurance.

"Don't worry..." I let out a gasp as Archer somehow manages to send the bow away and conjures a pair of curved swords. He readies himself into a fighting stance. "Your death will never come." His gray eyes promise nothing but annihilation to the doll that was facing us. "This I swear in the name of Shirou Emiya!" With a roar, he threw himself at the doll as it charged at us.

* * *

><p><em>Wise Up!<em>

Class – Archer  
>Master – Yourself<br>True Name – EMIYA  
>Sex – Male<br>Height/Weight – 187 cm/78 kg

Alignment – True Neutral

Strength: E  
>Mana: E<br>Endurance: E  
>N. Phantasm: Unknown<br>Agility: E  
>Luck: C<p>

Class Skills:

Magic Resistance: D  
>Independent Action: B<p>

Personal Skills:

Eye of the Mind (True): B  
>Clairvoyance: C<br>Magecraft: C-

Noble Phantasms:

Locked.


	8. Chapter 8

…

_World 2, Variant -, Future – And Your Rewards Are TYPEs_

…

0̷/N̡ot̴e̛s͜ ͠f͏rom ̨an ̢An̡g̢el͡

My name? Why'd you want to know the name of such a useless guy like me? Don't you know-

Look, lady. . . I know you must have heard a lot about me, but I'm just a normal human. Yes, one of those humans – and damn proud I haven't allowed myself to get modified yet too! Just let me get back to my dri- why are you laughing?

That isn't isn't funny.

Or cute.

Fine, if you're going to be that way about it-gah, "Fine, if you're going to be about it that way, **Anahita**." I'm going to get the hell out of here.

. . .

Can't you read the mood?

You're an A-ray and I'm me.

It won't even work out that way.

At all.

. . .

Geez, you're a persistent angel. Do you have some sort of fixation with endangered species?

Answer me this, do aardvarks make you horny?

…!

Geez, you definitely should've been born as something else besides an angel lad-

_No, aardvarks do not make me horny._

Tch! I can't believe you! You're making my beautiful and pristine image of the divine shatter into a thousand pieces with each breath you take!

No, that isn't a thinly veiled hint – keep your top on.

Huh? A job?

Haa... if it'll let me get away from you quicker, I'll listen. I reserve the right to scream for help if this crosses into territory where you try to commit bestiality, you lewd heretic.

...bounty hunting, huh? So, you A-Rays got sick and tired of all that shit too? So how much cash are you all thinking of throwing down this poor, penniless human for me to put a pound a hole in that Type's head? Exoskeleton? Whateverthefuckems?

That many zeros? No shit?

...

Now you're talking my language. One me and ol' Black Barrel here can agree with.

**FFFFFFFFFF**-! I did not turn you down back in that bar because- oh god no! Me wanting to pound a hole in - You just don't understand the love that comes between a man and his gun!

_No, I do not have an obsession with my father's penis, y_ou goddamned winged harpy! Get back here so I can show you my rifle!

No! Not that rifle!

. . .

Haa...haa... g-goddamned deviant. Lewd heretic is too good for her! S-she... she's just a perverted harpy!

Still that is a lot of money...


End file.
